[Silhouette]

The fear of crime is real,

Yes.

and it's more important than the actual risk of crime.

No.

Reducing fear of crime is valuable in itself, for the simple reason that it generally improves quality of life. Educating the public is useful to that end, and frankly we could do with a lot more of it, starting with putting all the security theatre and scary announcements whenever we travel anywhere these days back in perspective. But assuaging irrational fears is a lousy way to choose what to legislate. Laws should be created based on real needs, not imaginary bogeymen.