Three features make rare violent crimes generate disproportionate public fear

Evidence

There are three properties of criminal victimization that enable a few violent incidents to instill widespread public fear. First, there is unpredictability, with no forewarning of when or where violence might occur. Random crimes are especially frightening because they make everyone feel vulnerable (Heath, 1984). The second property is the gravity of the consequences. Individuals are unwilling to risk being maimed or killed or having their child abducted, killed, or critically injured, say, in a school shooting, even if the probability is extremely low. Finally, there is the sense of uncontrollability, a perceived helplessness should one be the victim of an armed crime. The prevalence of gun violence in broadcast media and the heavy focus on murders on local network news reinforce the fear that one can become the victim of an armed crime. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1040

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names the three mechanisms: unpredictability, severity of consequences, and uncontrollability.
• XREF: The unpredictability/severity/uncontrollability triad parallels risk-perception research (Slovic) and connects to moral panic dynamics in the reader’s work.
• SEED: Article angle: why vanishingly rare school shootings shape policy and culture far out of proportion to their actual occurrence rate.