Gender and fear of terrorism in Turkey

Fear of crime research has highlighted women's differential perceptions and emotions regarding particular offenses-sexual assault, most notably. However, the gendered nature of other crime-specific fears remains understudied. The authors used survey data from high school students in Turkey to examine (a) whether there are gender differences in fear of terrorism, (b) how correlates of terrorism-including media exposure, proterrorism associations, attitudes about terrorism, and demographic and contextual background characteristics-might mediate effects of gender, and (c) whether correlates of terrorism vary by gender. Findings indicated that women were more fearful of terrorism than men and that this difference persisted even after accounting for differences in the measured correlates of media exposure, proterrorism associations, attitudes about terrorism, and demographic and contextual variables. Furthermore, the effects of several of these correlates of fear were significantly different across gender.