La peur du crime dans un quartier de Montréal : Côte-des-Neiges

The author surveyed the "fear of crime" among the population of the Montreal district of Côte-des-Neiges, an area at the time of the author's research where Anglophones comprised a slight majority of the northern part of the district's population. Four hundred and one (401) respondents were randomly selected from the electoral lists of November 1978; 118 subjects answered the questionnaire: sixty men and fifty-eight women mostly residing for more than two years in the neighborhood. A few more Francophones than Anglophones (sixty-six versus fifty-two) answered the questionnaire. Three of the four areas chosen by those surveyed as a greater risk for crime were in the northern end of Côte-des-Neiges (the fourth was in the south-east sector). A comparison was made by the author between what those surveyed thought were crime risk areas with what two local police officers felt were of greater risk of crime in the district. The officers chose the same three northern areas as those surveyed, but not the south-east sector. The police described the three areas chosen as having dilapidated three and four storied houses; a very large number of immigrants - mostly Blacks; a high population density of families with many children who hang out in the street; and most residents of this sector being either unemployed or social assistance recipients. The author questioned whether the fact that these three sectors are perceived to be inhabited largely by immigrants, and especially Black people, would constitute the element of "otherness", even "xenophobia".

Criminologie

Vol. 16

no. 1

85-99

1983

fr