Sexual orientation and fear at night: gender differences among sexual minorities and heterosexuals.

This article was downloaded by: [176.103.39.229] On: 29 July 2014, At: 13:18 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Homosexuality Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wjhm20

Sexual Orientation and Fear at Night: Gender Differences Among Sexual Minorities and Heterosexuals a

Doug Meyer PhD & Eric Anthony Grollman PhD

b

a

Department of Sociology and Anthropology , The College of Wooster , Wooster , Ohio , USA b

Department of Sociology and Anthropology , University of Richmond , Richmond , Virginia , USA Accepted author version posted online: 25 Aug 2013.Published online: 28 Feb 2014.

To cite this article: Doug Meyer PhD & Eric Anthony Grollman PhD (2014) Sexual Orientation and Fear at Night: Gender Differences Among Sexual Minorities and Heterosexuals, Journal of Homosexuality, 61:4, 453-470, DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2013.834212 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2013.834212

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Journal of Homosexuality, 61:453–470, 2014 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0091-8369 print/1540-3602 online DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2013.834212

Sexual Orientation and Fear at Night: Gender Differences Among Sexual Minorities and Heterosexuals DOUG MEYER, PhD Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, USA

ERIC ANTHONY GROLLMAN, PhD Downloaded by [176.103.39.229] at 13:18 29 July 2014

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, USA

Using data from the 2000–2010 General Social Survey, a nationally representative sample of 5,086 adults in the United States, the authors examine sexual orientation and gender differences in reports of being afraid to walk alone at night. Results indicate that sexual minorities are significantly more likely to report fear at night than heterosexuals, and women are significantly more likely to report such fear than men. Further, our findings suggest that these sexual orientation and gender differences are due to sexual minority men being more likely than heterosexual men to report fear at night. Thus, the results of this study reveal that three groups—heterosexual women, sexual minority women, and sexual minority men—do not differ from one another in reporting fear, yet these groups are all more likely than heterosexual men to report fear at night. These findings give weight to the importance of investigating the intersection of sexual orientation and gender in individuals’ reports of fear. KEYWORDS fear of crime, intersectionality, lesbians and gay men, sexual minorities, victimization

We thank Long Doan, Lisa Miller, as well as the anonymous Journal of Homosexuality reviewers for their feedback. This study was supported by a Ford Diversity Fellowship awarded to Eric Anthony Grollman. Address correspondence to Doug Meyer, Department of Sociology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10016, USA. E-mail: dmeyer@ gc.cuny.edu 453

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D. Meyer and E. A. Grollman

Previous research on fear of victimization among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people has focused primarily on gender differences among sexual minorities, yet little research has examined the differences in fear between heterosexuals and sexual minorities (Greenfield & Thelen, 1997; Moran, Skeggs, Tyrer, & Corteen, 2003; Otis, 2007; Ragins, Singh, & Cornwell, 2007). This article attempts to fill this gap by examining data from a nationally representative probability sample of 5,086 adults in the United States from the 2000–2010 General Social Survey (GSS). In particular, we explore sexual orientation and gender differences in fear at night, comparing the perceptions of sexual minorities and heterosexuals, and the perceptions of women and men. We also examine the intersection of sexual orientation and gender by comparing differences in fear among four groups: heterosexual women, heterosexual men, sexual minority women, and sexual minority men. In contrast to previous research, which has focused predominantly on the gender differences among LGB people, this article explores sexual orientation differences, suggesting that sexual minorities and heterosexuals differ in some important ways with regard to experiencing fear, and that these differences may be conditional on gender.

BACKGROUND Victimization Research and the Role of Gender in Fear of Crime Victimization research has typically focused on a range of contextual factors and demographic characteristics to explain individuals’ reports of fear (Box, Hale, & Andrews, 1988; Hale, 1996; LaGrange & Ferraro, 1989; Warr, 1990). This body of scholarship has found that past experiences of victimization have a significant effect on fear of crime, although there is some evidence that the amount of reported fear depends on the criminal offense in question (Otis, 2007; Rountree, 1998). Individuals with a history of personal victimization, for instance, tend to experience high levels of fear with regard to future personal crime and those with a history of property victimization tend to report high levels of fear for future property-related crime (Rountree, 1998). Spatial and neighborhood characteristics have also been found to have a significant effect, as individuals living in areas with high levels of community disorder have reported more fear than those who do not live in such communities (Hale, 1996; LaGrange, Ferraro, & Supancic, 1992; Rountree & Land, 1996). Further, residents of urban areas have reported high levels of fear due to the population density of these areas, which may contribute to feelings of alienation among its residents (Bennett & Flavin, 1994; Skogan, 1986). In addition to research on neighborhood and contextual factors, studies of victimization have focused extensively on gender differences in fear of crime (Cops & Pleysier, 2011; Fisher & Sloan, 2003; Pain, 1997; Snedker,


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2006). Initial research emphasized that women tend to report more fear than men (Ferraro, 1995; LaGrange & Ferraro, 1989; Stanko, 1990). Some of these early studies explored the seeming disjuncture between women’s fear and their actual experiences of victimization, as women were often found to report high levels of fear for crimes that they were at relatively little risk of experiencing (Hough & Mayhew, 1983). Subsequent research suggested that women’s fear of crime, rather than being conceptualized as irrational, should be understood in the context of the many potential threats that women confront, including their heightened risk of sexual assault (Ferraro, 1996; Stanko, 1992; Wesely & Gaarder, 2004). Moreover, some forms of violence, ranging from domestic violence to sexual harassment, are often overlooked and sometimes even condoned by the larger society, thereby heightening women’s fear of their occurrence (Madriz, 1997; Pain, 1997). In this context, some survey research has been criticized as being conceptually and methodologically flawed for exaggerating the degree to which men may be fearless and for failing to capture many of the forms of violence confronting women (Cops & Pleysier, 2011; Ferraro & LaGrange, 1987; Goodey, 1997; Warr, 1987). As the more insidious and everyday forms of harassment are frequently not captured by these survey instruments, they regularly privilege the more obvious or extreme forms of victimization, while failing to account for the routine forms of violence that women confront (Madriz, 1997; Moran et al., 2003; Stanko, 1992). Although studies of fear have revealed much about the gendered dynamics of fear, we know relatively little about how sexual orientation may affect individuals’ reports (Otis, 2007). Are sexual minority women, for instance, more likely to report fear than heterosexual women? Moreover, given that gay men are often negatively affected by homophobia and are frequently stereotyped as feminine in the United States (Franklin, 2000; Herek, Cogan, & Gillis, 2002; Swim, Pearson, & Johnston, 2007), are they similar to women in their reports of fear? Finally, how do women and gay men’s reports of fear compare with those of heterosexual men? Without taking sexual orientation into account, research on fear cannot adequately answer these questions.

Sexual Minorities’ Victimization Risk and Reports of Fear A small but growing body of literature has examined fear among LGB people (D’Augelli, 1992; Laing & Davies, 2011; Otis, 2007; Rivers, McPherson, & Hughes, 2010). This research remains particularly important, given that sexual minorities frequently encounter harassment and abuse, and may experience violence at higher rates than the general population (Barrientos, Silva, Catalan, Gomez, & Longueira, 2010; D’Augelli & Grossman, 2001; Herek, 2009). Similar to research on fear of victimization, many of the studies


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examining violence against LGB people have focused on gender differences. These studies have generally found that gay men are more frequently the targets of violence and harassment than lesbian women, especially during adolescence (D’Augelli, Pilkington, & Hershberger, 2002; Herek, 2009). Other scholarship has challenged these findings, suggesting that much of the violence against lesbian women remains invisible (Meyer, 2008; Perry, 2001; von Schulthess, 1992). As sexual minorities appear at greater risk of victimization than heterosexuals, one might expect the former to be more likely than the latter to report fear of being victimized (Herek, 2009). Previous research, however, has largely overlooked the role of sexual orientation in individuals’ reports of fear (Otis, 2007). Nevertheless, a few studies have documented a correlation between victimization risk and fear of crime among LGB people (D’Augelli, 1992; Otis, 2007; Ragins et al., 2007; Rivers et al., 2010). In one of the first studies of sexual minorities’ reports of fear, D’Augelli found that the frequency with which undergraduate students have been harassed correlates strongly with the amount of fear they report. As this line of research has continued, attention has shifted to the psychological effects of homophobic violence (D’Augelli et al., 2002; Herek et al., 2002; Jackson, Johnson, & Roberts, 2008). These studies have generally suggested that sexual minorities experience significant amounts of psychological distress in contexts in which they fear disclosing their sexual orientation (Ragins et al., 2007; Swim et al., 2007; Tiby, 2001). As a result, this body of scholarship indicates that sexual minorities tend to report high levels of fear and psychological distress when viewing their risk of victimization as high (D’Augelli & Grossman, 2001; Otis & Skinner, 1996; Rivers et al., 2010). In one of the most extensive studies of fear among sexual minorities, Otis (2007) found that a range of contextual and demographic characteristics explained sexual minorities’ fear of victimization. Consistent with previous research on gender, Otis’s results suggested that lesbian and bisexual women reported significantly more fear than gay and bisexual men. These differences among sexual minorities, however, were relatively small when compared with the gender differences in studies that have explored the general, predominantly heterosexual population. Otis hypothesized that the relatively small gap between lesbian women and gay men’s fear of victimization could be attributed to the social isolation and vulnerability confronting gay men, which may be comparable in some ways to the many potential threats facing women, heterosexual and lesbian alike. Nevertheless, Otis’s research, while revealing much about the differences between lesbian women and gay men, could only speculate on the ways in which heterosexual people may differ from sexual minorities. Further, in relying upon a convenience sample of LGB people recruited at an LGB and transgender pride event, Otis’s findings cannot be generalized to the larger sexual minority population.


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As Otis (2007) made implicit comparisons between her results and those of previous studies, she suggested that future research should compare heterosexual and sexual minority populations to understand how gender differences in fear may depend on sexual orientation. Accordingly, we build on studies that have explored fear among sexual minorities. Despite the invaluable contribution of previous research on this topic, studies of fear among sexual minorities have usually examined the differences among LGB people, rather than how these groups differ from heterosexual people. Among the few studies that have focused on differences between sexual minorities and heterosexual populations, they have typically been conducted with small, nonprobability samples (see Laing & Davies, 2011). These gaps in the literature suggest several areas for further exploration, which are examined in this article. How do sexual minorities differ from heterosexual people in their perceptions of fear? Moreover, how do these sexual orientation differences vary based on gender? In this article, we explore these research questions in depth, examining the ways in which sexual orientation and gender affect individuals’ perceptions of fear at night among a nationally representative probability sample of 5,086 adults in the United States. Given past research indicating that LGB people are likely at greater risk of victimization than heterosexuals, we hypothesized that sexual minorities would be more likely than heterosexuals to report fear at night (Barrientos et al., 2010; D’Augelli & Grossman, 2001; Herek, 2009). In addition, consistent with previous research, we hypothesized that women would be more likely than men to report fear (Cops & Pleysier, 2011; Ferraro, 1995; Snedker, 2006; Stanko, 1990). With regard to the intersection of sexual orientation and gender, we hypothesized that sexual minority women would have a greater likelihood of reporting fear compared to heterosexual women, but that women, regardless of sexual orientation, would be more likely to report fear than heterosexual and sexual minority men. Because women may confront a greater threat of sexual assault than gay men, we expected heterosexual and sexual minority women to be more likely than sexual minority men to report fear; these findings would be consistent with Otis’s (2007) research, where lesbian and bisexual women reported more fear than gay and bisexual men. At the same time, we expected sexual minority women to be more likely to report fear than heterosexual women, as the former may confront forms of sexual orientation-based violence that the latter do not (Meyer, 2008; Perry, 2001; von Schulthess, 1992). We also expected sexual minority men to have a greater likelihood of reporting fear at night than heterosexual men, given that the former may be at greater risk of victimization (Herek, 2009). Thus, with regard to the intersection of sexual orientation and gender, we hypothesized that sexual minority women would be the most likely to report fear and that heterosexual men would be the least likely, while heterosexual women would be more likely than sexual minority men to report fear at night.

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METHOD Data


To assess sexual orientation and gender differences in the experience of fear at night, we use data from the 2000–2010 GSS. Pooling data over several years yields a larger subsample of sexual minority respondents. The GSS, collected biannually most years since 1972 by the National Opinion Research Center, is a nationally representative survey of non-institutionalized adults who are age 18 years or older in the United States. Smith, Marsden, and Hout (2011) provided a full description of the GSS methodology and data. After using listwise deletion for missing information on independent and dependent variables, our final sample includes 5,086 adult respondents.

Measures Fear at night. Respondents’ reports of fear are measured by the following item: “Is there any area right around here—that is, within a mile [of your residence]—where you would be afraid to walk alone at night?” This item is measured dichotomously, with respondents answering either “yes” (1) or “no” (0). Sexual minority status. To date, few nationally representative studies include information about respondents’ sexualities. Although the GSS has included information about respondents’ sexual behaviors since 1988, respondents were not asked about their self-reported sexual identity (e.g., LGB and heterosexual) until the 2008 and 2010 surveys (Turner, Villarroel, Chromy, Eggleston, & Rogers, 2005). As a result, a small number of respondents identified as LGB in these surveys (n = 61), which limits our ability to examine differences between heterosexual- and LGB-identified people. Thus, using an approach that has been employed in previous research that has compared sexual minorities and heterosexuals (Badgett, 1995; Lewis & Seaman, 2004), we define sexual minorities as respondents who reported any same-sex sexual partners in the past 5 years.1 Defined in this way, 4.2% (n = 216) of our respondents are sexual minorities, including 104 sexual minority men and 112 sexual minority women. This proportion is similar to that of LGB identified respondents in the 2008–2010 GSS surveys (3.5%) and other national estimates (Gates, 2011). Further, with regard to fear at night, the results presented in this article using sexual minority status (i.e., sex of sex partners in the past 5 years) are similar to those using sexual identity from the 2008–2010 GSS surveys (analyses available upon request). Sociodemographic and contextual variables. In addition to the effect of sexual minority status on reports of fear at night, we examine the effects of gender, race and ethnicity, age, education, income, religiosity, urbanicity, and region of the country. Gender is measured as a dichotomous variable


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(female = 1, male = 0). We measure race and ethnicity using dichotomous variables for Latina/os (yes = 1) and non-Hispanic Blacks (yes = 1), with non-Hispanic Whites used as the reference group for each. Age is measured in years and ranges from 18 to 89+ (M = 43.60). Education is measured by years of formal schooling, ranging from 0 to 20+ (M = 13.72— approximately the equivalent of 1–2 years of college). We measure income, adjusted for inflation, in thousands of U.S. dollars. Religiosity is a measure of how frequently respondents’ report attending religious services, ranging from 0 (never) to 8 (more than one time per week) (M = 3.47—approximately several times per year to once per month). We consider two aspects of the context in which respondents live— urbanicity and region of the country. Prior research highlights urban-rural differences in experiences of fear (Bennett & Flavin, 1994; Skogan, 1986). As such, we include an indicator of urbanicity (yes = 1; for a full description of the coding of standard metropolitan statistical areas, see Smith et al., 2011). In light of evidence of regional differences in levels of prejudice and discrimination against LGB people in the United States (see Antecol, Jong, & Steinberger, 2008; Loftus, 2001; Tilcsik, 2011), we also include a control for respondents’ regional context. Region is a dichotomous variable of the U.S. South (1) and the remainder of the country (0).2 Finally, given our use of multiple years, we control for year of survey, ranging from 2000 (0) to 2010 (5).3

RESULTS Sexual Orientation and Fear at Night Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics for the independent and dependent variables for the sample and by sexual minority status and gender. Approximately one-third of the sample reports being afraid to walk alone at night. However, these reports differ by sexual minority status and gender. Sexual minorities (44%) are significantly more likely than heterosexuals (31%) to report fear at night; likewise, women (44%) are significantly more likely than men (19%) to report such fear. Whereas a number of additional differences emerge among the independent variables, we use multivariate regression in the following analyses to examine sexual minority status and gender differences in fear at night, net of the effects of sociodemographic and contextual characteristics. We use binary logistic regression to predict the likelihood of reporting that one is afraid to walk alone at night. Table 2 presents the binary logistic odds ratios for fear at night. In Model 1, we estimate the effect of sexual minority status on fear at night, controlling for year of survey. Model 2 includes a control for gender. In Model 3, we add controls for race, ethnicity, age, education, income, religiosity, urbanicity, and region of the country.

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TABLE 1 Sample, Sexual Minority Status, and Gender-Specific Descriptive Statistics


Variable Sociodemographic characteristics Black (yes = 1) Latina/o (yes = 1) Age, in years Education, in years Income, in U.S. dollars Religiosity (never = 0; 2+ weekly = 8) Contextual characteristics U.S. South (yes = 1) Urban (yes = 1) Fear at night Afraid to walk alone at night (yes = 1)

Sexual Sample Heterosexual minority Male Female (N = 5,086) (n = 4,880) (n = 216) (n = 2,482) (n = 2,604)

.13 .10 40.46∗∗ 14.20∗∗ 45.49∗ 2.69∗∗∗

.11 .09 44.49 13.76 57.03 3.17

.16∗∗∗ .10 42.75∗∗∗ 13.68 48.71∗∗∗ 3.76∗∗∗

.13 .10 43.60 13.72 52.77 3.47

.13 .19 43.76 13.70 53.09 3.51

.37 .76

.37 .76

.31 .82

.37 .76

.37 .76

.32

.31

.44∗∗∗

.19

.44∗∗∗

Note. Whites are the reference racial/ethnic group. ∗ p < .05. ∗∗ p < .01. ∗∗∗ p < .001 (for sexual minorities and women compared to heterosexuals and men, respectively).

Across each model, sexual minority status significantly predicts fear at night; that is, sexual minorities are significantly more likely to report being afraid to walk alone at night than their heterosexual counterparts, even when controlling for sociodemographic and contextual characteristics (p < .001). In the full model (Model 3), sexual minorities are 72% more likely than heterosexuals to report experiencing such fear. It is noteworthy that the inclusion of sociodemographic and contextual variables in subsequent models does not substantially explain the significant effect of sexual minority status on fear at night. In addition to sexual minority status, other sociodemographic and contextual characteristics significantly predict reports of fear of walking alone at night, including gender, race and ethnicity, income, urbanicity, and region of the country. Women and non-Hispanic Blacks and Latina/os are significantly more likely to report such fear compared to men and non-Hispanic Whites, respectively. In Model 3, women are over four times more likely than men to report fear at night; in fact, the effect of gender is significantly larger than sexual minority status and race and ethnicity. Latina/os and nonHispanic Blacks are 29 and 37% more likely than non-Hispanic Whites to report such fear, respectively. In addition, respondents with lower levels of income, Southerners, and those living in urban areas are more likely than those with higher incomes, non-Southerners, and those living in rural areas to report fear at night. The effects of year, age, education, and religiosity are consistently nonsignificant.

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Fear at Night TABLE 2 Binary Logistic Odds Ratios for Fear of Walking Alone at Night Variable Sexual minority Year

Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

Model 4

1.73∗∗∗ (1.31−2.27) 0.98 (0.95−1.02)

1.80∗∗∗ (1.35−2.40) 0.97 (0.94−1.01) 3.45∗∗∗ (3.04−3.92)

1.72∗∗∗ (1.28−2.31) 0.97 (0.93−1.00) 3.38∗∗∗ (2.96−3.85) 1.29∗∗ (1.07−1.56) 1.37∗∗ (1.10−1.70) 1.00 (0.99−1.00) 0.99 (0.97−1.02) 0.99∗∗∗ (0.99−1.00) 0.99 (0.97−1.01) 1.33∗∗∗ (1.16−1.51) 1.80∗∗∗ (1.53−2.11)

3.09∗∗∗ (2.04−4.67) 0.97 (0.93−1.00) 3.58∗∗∗ (3.12−4.09) 1.29∗∗ (1.06−1.55) 1.36∗∗ (1.10−1.69) 1.00 (0.99−1.00) 0.99 (0.96−1.01) 0.99∗∗∗ (0.99−1.00) 0.99 (0.97−1.01) 1.33∗∗∗ (1.16−1.52) 1.80∗∗∗ (1.53−2.11) 0.34∗∗∗ (0.19−0.60)

6,350.99

5,962.45

5,807.94

5,796.21

6,370.59

5,988.59

5,886.35

5,881.16

Female Black Latina/o Age


Education Income Religiosity U.S. South Urban Sexual minority∗ Female Akaike Information Criterion Bayesian Information Criterion

Note. N = 5,086. Whites are the reference racial/ethnic group. Exponentiated coefficients; 95% confidence intervals in parentheses. ∗ p < .05. ∗∗ p < .01. ∗∗∗ p < .001.

The Intersection of Sexual Orientation and Gender Table 2 also presents the binary logistic odds ratios for fear at night including interaction effects for sexual minority status by gender (Model 4). The sexual minority status by gender interaction effect is significant (p < .001).4 To further examine the significant interaction between sexual minority status and gender in reports of being afraid to walk alone at night, we re-estimated the full model for each of the four sexual minority status-gender subgroups (i.e., heterosexual men, heterosexual women, sexual minority men, and sexual minority women). Table 3 presents the binary logistic odds ratios for reports of fear at night for men, for women, and for the four sexual minority status-gender subgroups. The patterns in Table 3 reveal that the relation between sexual minority status and fear at night is statistically significant among men only. Sexual minority men are significantly more likely than heterosexual men to report

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TABLE 3 Binary Logistic Odds Ratios for Fear of Walking Alone at Night For Gender and Sexual Minority Status-Gender Subgroups

Variable Sexual minority Heterosexual Female Sexual minority Male Sexual minority Female Year


Black Latina/o Age Education Income Religiosity U.S. South Urban n Akaike Information Criterion Bayesian Information Criterion

Sexual minority status-gender subgroups

Men

Women

3.08∗∗∗ (2.03−4.67)

1.04 (0.70−1.54)

0.97 (0.91−1.03) 1.52∗∗ (1.11−2.08) 1.67∗∗ (1.19−2.33) 1.00 (0.99−1.01) 1.00 (0.96−1.04) 0.99∗∗∗ (0.99−1.00) 1.00 (0.96−1.05) 1.20 (0.97−1.49) 1.87∗∗∗ (1.42−2.47)

0.97 (0.93−1.01) 1.17 (0.92−1.48) 1.19 (0.90−1.57) 1.00 (0.99−1.00) 0.98 (0.95−1.01) 0.99∗∗∗ (0.99−1.00) 0.98 (0.95−1.01) 1.41∗∗∗ (1.19−1.67) 1.79∗∗∗ (1.47−2.18)

3.58∗∗∗ (3.12−4.09) 3.09∗∗∗ (2.04−4.67) 3.74∗∗∗ (2.52−5.57) 0.97 (0.93−1.00) 1.29∗∗ (1.06−1.55) 1.36∗∗ (1.10−1.69) 1.00 (0.99−1.00) 0.99 (0.96−1.01) 0.99∗∗∗ (0.99−1.00) 0.99 (0.97−1.01) 1.33∗∗∗ (1.16−1.52) 1.80∗∗∗ (1.53−2.11)

2,482 2,321.57 2,385.55

2,604 3,486.34 3,550.86

5,086 5,796.21 5,881.16

Note. N = 5,086. Whites are the reference racial/ethnic group. Heterosexual males are the reference sexual minority status-gender subgroup. Exponentiated coefficients; 95% confidence intervals in parentheses. ∗ p < .05. ∗∗ p < .01. ∗∗∗ p < .001.

such fear at night (p < .001). The sexual minority status-gender subgroup analyses reveal that heterosexual women (258% more), sexual minority men (209% more), and sexual minority women (274% more) are significantly more likely than heterosexual men to report fear at night (p < .001); however, the reports of heterosexual women, sexual minority men, and sexual minority women do not differ significantly from one another. It is noteworthy that the model fit (Bayesian Information Criterion and Akaike Information Criterion) is substantially improved upon including these interaction effects.5 It is interesting to note that the gender-specific analyses also reveal that the effects of race and ethnicity on fear at night are unique to men, and the effect of region of the country is unique to women. Latino and non-Hispanic

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Black men are significantly more likely to report being afraid to walk alone at night than non-Hispanic White men. Women who reside in the U.S. South are significantly more likely than their non-Southern counterparts to report such fear. The negative effect of income and the positive effect of urbanicity are significant for both women and men. Thus, lower levels of income and living in an urban area significantly predict fear at night for both women and men. However, the effects of race and ethnicity and region are gendered, wherein men of color and Southern women are more likely to report fear than non-Hispanic White men and non-Southern women, respectively.


DISCUSSION Previous research on fear of crime and victimization has attended to differences between women and men, and among LGB people (Fisher & Sloan, 2003; Otis, 2007; Snedker, 2006). This line of research, however, has not fully examined differences in fear between sexual minorities and heterosexuals. Further, although significant gender differences have been documented (Cops & Pleysier, 2011; Ferraro, 1995; Stanko, 1990), wherein women are more likely than men to report fear of victimization, research on fear has failed to consider the ways in which sexual orientation and gender may intersect with regard to such fear. In this article, we used nationally representative survey data to examine sexual orientation and gender differences in reports of being afraid to walk alone at night. Our findings suggest that fear at night differs by sexual orientation: sexual minorities were more likely to report being afraid to walk alone at night than their heterosexual counterparts. Consistent with previous research, women were also more likely than men to report fear at night. Further analyses revealed that there is an interaction between sexual orientation and gender in reports of fear: the effect of sexual orientation on reports of fear at night is exclusive to men. The reports of heterosexual women, sexual minority women, and sexual minority men do not differ from one another, yet these groups are more likely than heterosexual men to report being afraid to walk alone at night. Thus, while our hypotheses that women would be more likely to report fear compared to men and sexual minorities would have a greater likelihood of reporting fear relative to heterosexuals were both confirmed by our analyses, our findings suggest that these sexual orientation and gender differences are due to sexual minority men’s greater likelihood of reporting fear at night compared to heterosexual men. As such, this study reveals that heterosexual and sexual minority women do not differ in their reports of being afraid to walk alone at night, yet sexual minority men are more likely than heterosexual men to report such fear. As previous research has shown, LGB people generally face higher rates of victimization than heterosexuals, and victimization risk has been shown


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to affect the amount of fear reported by LGB people (Barrientos et al., 2010; D’Augelli & Grossman, 2001; Herek, 2009; Otis, 2007; Ragins et al., 2007). Our findings add further weight to this line of research, as our results suggest that fear of victimization remains a highly gendered phenomenon, with heterosexual men being relatively privileged in comparison to women and sexual minority men. We can only speculate as to the cause of these sexual orientation and gender differences, yet the differences may be attributable to the degree to which violence against women and sexual minorities remains institutionally supported (Alden & Parker, 2005; Franklin, 2000; Lyons, 2006; Pain, 1997). As violence from men remains inscribed in dominant constructions of masculinity, and the victims of such violence are often blamed for its occurrence, fear of victimization on the part of women and sexual minority men may be a consequence of this lack of institutional support (Lyons, 2006; Madriz, 1997; Meyer, 2010; Plum, Terrance, Henderson, & Ellingson, 2010; Stanko, 1990). Regardless of the precise reasons, this study indicates that sexual orientation and gender both play an important role in structuring individuals’ perceptions of fear at night, which suggests that these variables should be taken into account in future research. In contrast to our hypotheses, in which we predicted that sexual minority women would be more likely to report fear than heterosexual women, these two groups did not differ in their reports of fear at night. It is possible that sexual minority women are more likely than heterosexual women to fear sexual orientation-based forms of violence, while the latter are more likely than the former to fear gender-specific violence (see Ferraro, 1996; Schnitzer et al., 2010; von Schulthess, 1992). At the same time, however, sexual minority women may not be able to compartmentalize their sexual orientation and gender, as they may fear forms of violence that are based on both of these aspects of their identity. Thus, because the GSS does not distinguish between general fear and fear associated with sexual orientation and gender, further research is needed to compare the forms of victimization that heterosexual and sexual minority women may fear. Our hypothesis that women are more likely to report fear than sexual minority men was also not supported by our results, as sexual minority men’s reports did not differ from those of heterosexual and sexual minority women. This finding, as suggested by Otis (2007), may be attributable to the similar levels of vulnerability and social isolation facing these groups. As a result, this similarity in the reports of fear among women and sexual minority men opens up an area for further study, as research is needed to uncover the similarities and differences between women and sexual minority men with regard to fear. While we did not find evidence of significant interactions between race and ethnicity and sexual orientation (available upon request), we did find other important differences along the lines of race and ethnicity. In particular, women did not differ in their reports of fear based on race and ethnicity, yet Latino and non-Hispanic Black men were more likely to report fear than


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non-Hispanic White men. Thus, similar to the effect of sexual orientation on fear at night, the effect of race and ethnicity appears to be gendered. In light of these significant race and ethnicity by gender interactions, it is crucial for victimization research to attend to the intersections among sexual orientation, gender, race and ethnicity, as well as other important contextual factors (e.g., urbanicity, region). Although this article yields important and significant findings, it faces a few limitations. Our key independent variable—sexual orientation—rests on respondents’ reports of the sex of their sexual partners in the past 5 years. Thus, we have measured respondents’ sexual orientation based on their sexual behavior. This measurement, while also used by previous studies, does not account for respondents’ sexual identities. As a result, this study may have misclassified “closeted” LGB people or individuals who have engaged in same-sex sexual behavior in the last 5 years but do not openly identify as LGB. Nevertheless, even when we ran analyses using self-reported sexual identity in the 2008–2010 GSS surveys, our results were similar: LGB people were significantly more likely to report fear at night than heterosexuals, and this difference reflects heterosexual men’s lower likelihood than gay men of reporting fear at night. Moreover, as sexuality remains difficult to measure using survey data, our results build on the work of previous scholars who have argued that sexual orientation is often best captured on survey instruments through sexual behavior measurements (Badgett, 1995; Lewis & Seaman, 2004). Still, there may be real differences with regard to fear among individuals who openly identify as LGB, people who are closeted, and individuals who engage in same-sex relationships. Future research, at the very least, should distinguish between measurements of behavior and identity. Previous research has suggested that studies of fear should distinguish between one’s perception of crime risk and one’s actual fear of experiencing victimization, since individuals may be aware that they are at high risk of experiencing crime without actually experiencing the emotional response of fear (Farrall, Bannister, Ditton, & Gilchrist, 1997; Ferraro & LaGrange, 1987; Rountree & Land, 1996; Warr, 1987). Although the survey instrument used for this study did not distinguish between these variables, our results open up an area for future study by comparing sexual minorities with their heterosexual counterparts. It is possible that sexual minorities may be aware that they are at high risk of experiencing crime, without actually experiencing fear; Otis’s (2007) research, on the other hand, suggests that LGB people’s awareness of crime risk does translate into fear of victimization. Still, future research should explore this relation between perception of crime risk and fear of victimization among sexual minorities and heterosexuals, as the relation between these variables may differ among heterosexuals and sexual minorities. Our assessment of fear relies on a single measure—fear of walking alone at night—that does not explicitly ask respondents about what, in particular,


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they fear. Sexual minorities may be more likely to report fear than their heterosexual counterparts for a variety of reasons, including robbery, sexual assault, verbal harassment, or sexual orientation-based hate crimes. Further research should explore the particular nature of this fear, and whether it is based on crime victimization or verbal harassment. Laing and Davies (2011) provided evidence that gay men report more fear of crime than heterosexual men, even when personal experiences of victimization are taken into account. The 2000–2010 GSS surveys, however, lack data on respondents’ past experiences of victimization, which has been shown to affect fear of crime (Otis, 2007; Rountree, 1998). Nevertheless, in additional analyses using 1991–1994 GSS data (available upon request), we assessed fear of victimization, controlling for respondents’ experiences with break-ins and armed robbery in the past year.6 Our findings that women and sexual minorities were more likely to report fear than heterosexual men were the same, with or without controls for past victimization. Despite some of the limitations of this study, our findings provide a greater understanding of sociodemographic differences in fear at night. We uncovered an important relation between fear and disadvantaged status: racial and ethnic minorities, women, and sexual minorities are more likely to report fear of victimization than their privileged counterparts. Further, we found evidence of important intersections among sexual orientation and gender, as sexual minority men were more likely to report fear than heterosexual men, yet women did not differ based on sexual orientation. Thus, with regard to fear at night, our results reveal that women, regardless of sexual orientation, and sexual minority men are much more likely to report fear at night than heterosexual men. These findings give weight to the importance of examining sexual orientation, as well as the intersections among gender, sexual orientation, and race and ethnicity, in research on individuals’ perceptions of victimization.

NOTES 1. The General Social Survey also asks respondents about the sex of their sex partners in the last 12 months and the number of female and male partners since their 18th birthday. With regard to fear at night, the results yielded using each of these measures for sexual orientation are similar to those presented in this article using sex of sex partners in the past 5 years (analyses available upon request). 2. The General Social Survey data notes respondents’ specific region in the United States: New England, Mid-Atlantic, East North Central, West North Central, South Atlantic, East South Central, West South Central, Mountain, and Pacific. Supplemental analyses (available upon request) using dichotomous variables for each region generally suggest that respondents in southern regions of the United States are more likely than those in the remainder of the country to report fear at night. As such, we present findings from analyses using a dichotomous indicator of residence in the U.S. South (yes = 1). 3. The results in our analyses are similar when measuring year of survey by dichotomous variables for each year; thus, we present the findings using year as a continuous variable. 4. In subsequent analyses (available upon request), we assessed the interaction effect for sexual minority status by race and ethnicity. These effects were nonsignificant.

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5. Post-estimation tests for multicollinearity indicated that education may be collinear with other variables; however, no other variable exceeded a variance inflation score indicating significant collinearity. Supplemental analyses (available upon request) that exclude education yield similar patterns to those that include it. 6. The 2000–2010 General Social Survey (GSS) data do not include information on past experiences of crime and victimization. In supplemental analyses (available upon request) using 1991–1994 GSS data, we reestimated our models including controls for experiences of break-ins and armed robberies within the past year. The results yielded are generally similar to those we present from the 2000–2010 GSS: Heterosexual women, sexual minority men, and sexual minority women are significantly more likely to report fear at night than heterosexual men; however, the former three groups do not significantly differ from one another in reports of fear.


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