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Crime and Disorder: Perceptions of Business People in Cornwall, England

While there has, recently, been a spate of research on the victimisation of businesses, rather less research has focused on the perceptions of the business community, and — in contrast to studies of the general public — little emphasis has been placed on explaining variations in concern over crime and disorder. This article uses data from the 2001 Cornwall Business Crime Survey to explore the extent to which business people in a rural county of England perceive crime and disorder to be a problem locally and are concerned at its impact on their businesses. The findings suggest that crime and disorder were not considered the most serious problems facing local businesses, but nevertheless evoked some concern, particularly among a significant minority of respondents. The article then focuses on explaining variations in perceptions and concludes that these can be understood in terms of the nature of the businesses, their location, and the extent to which businesses had experienced crime. These findings largely parallel Hough's (1995) earlier work explaining anxiety among the general public.