Fear of crime in two post-socialist capital cities – Ljubljana, Slovenia and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Theorizing about the fear of crime is one of the main activities of contemporary research in the field of international criminology. The research on variations in fear levels has been dominated by sociological, socio-demographic variables, and social-psychological models of fear of crime. This article uses multiple regression techniques in order to examine these variables to compare fear of crime in two central European capitals: Ljubljana, Slovenia and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo was found to be more fearful overall than Ljubljana. This difference may be explained by differences in the roles of the two cultures in the war of the former Yugoslavia. The current article focuses on differences in culture (e.g., status of women and self-estimation) as well as post-war conditions such as economics, social deprivation, and disorganization in order to explain differing levels of fear of crime.