Mengantisipasi Kematian Akibat Kekerasan: Ketakutan terhadap Pembunuhan (Fear of Homicide) dan Pengalaman Kerentanan pada Malam Hari

Abstract

This study aims to explain how fear of homicide is formed through nocturnal vulnerability and how that experience relates to the spatial and relational patterns of homicide. The study employs a literature review using purposive document selection, qualitative content analysis, and narrative synthesis of scholarly articles and official reports on fear of homicide, nighttime safety, and victim–offender relationships. The findings indicate that fear of homicide is not fully autonomous from fear of violent crime, yet it has a distinctive character because the anticipated outcome is irreversible. Nocturnal vulnerability does not arise automatically from darkness; it develops when reduced spatial legibility, limited exitability, and uncertain access to assistance weaken a person’s capacity to interpret and respond to possible threats. The analysis also identifies risk-location disjuncture, namely a gap between threats that dominate public fear and the locations and relationships represented in homicide data. Stranger danger is highly visible in nighttime public spaces, whereas lethal violence involving intimate partners, relatives, or acquaintances may be recognized later because it develops within socially familiar relationships. These findings suggest that fear reduction and homicide prevention should not be treated as identical policy objectives. Public-space surveillance may improve perceived safety, while preventing relational homicide requires interventions directed at escalation, access to protection, and the specific relationship between victims and perpetrators.