Perception and measurement of crime Flashcards
How does the the
2020 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey show that there is a mismatch between perception and reality of crime in Scotland?
the
2020 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey showed that the volume of crime in
Scotland has fallen by 46% since 2008 yet over a quarter of Scots (27%) said
they felt crime had got worse in their local area.
How does the media influence perception of crime?
. The mass
media is known to distort extreme and sensational cases making people
feel as though there is more violent crime in society than there really is.
Many criminologists that study the media such as Tim Newburn also suggest
that the way stories are framed and constructed contribute to anxiety and
fear, especially among pensioners. The language and punctuation used is
designed to capture the attention of potential readers at the news stand.
This proves that the media conditions the population to think that more
crime is happening than official crime statistics indicate.
Why might the impact of violent crime on Victims be exaggerated?
in 73% of cases of violent crime, the overwhelming
majority, there is no injury or only negligible injury to victims. In fact,
only 6% of violent crime was classed as ‘serious assault’, suggesting only a
very small minority suffer any long-term physical or emotional damage
from crime.
Why is the perception of crimes of a sexual nature notoriously distorted?
ictims of sexual assault and rape are often damaged physically and
psychologically by their ordeal but also suffer further from shame, social
stigma and sometimes from further violence they experience, particularly
within patriarchal societies. For example, the Scottish Criminal Justice
Survey (SCJS) found that 3% of the population experience serious sexual
assault and that despite an increase in the reporting of crimes such as
rape, there is still a significant problem of under reporting in Scotland
(and the UK) with less than a fifth of sexual assault victims reporting the
incident to the police. This under-reporting is a consequence of varied
factors such as societal attitudes, personal reasons of victims, rape myths
and the victim-blaming that often goes on. A similar but larger-scale
problem exists in many South Asian societies such as Bangladesh. In many
cases this a consequence of laws that allow marital rape and the
discriminatory attitudes and victim-blaming amongst legal officials which
blocks victims seeking justice.
How does the economic status of a country impact perceptions of crime?
In socially cohesive
communities and societies, such as Norway and Japan, the rates of crime
are lower and the risk of victimhood is lower whereas this risk is higher in
more economically divisive societies such as the UK and the US, and
especially higher in developing countries such as Venezuela which has the
highest rates of crime anywhere in the world.
Summarise criminality and deviancy
In relation to crime, societies outline what behaviours are accepted and unaccepted and these
usually form the laws that provide boundaries for us as citizens. Using this as a foundation, a
crime is an illegal act that is punishable by law. If a person commits a crime and is detected,
they could be arrested, charged and prosecuted. If found guilty, they will receive a sentence
such as a community order, fine or imprisonment. Some illegal acts are not necessarily seen as
deviant. For example, parking cars on double yellow lines even though this is against the law.
Deviance refers to behaviour that does not conform to a society’s norms or rules. If a person
behaves in a way that is seen as deviant and this is discovered, it could lead to negative
sanctions such as being told off, ignored or ridiculed. Some, but not all, deviant acts are also
illegal. Legal deviance is behaviour that is seen as ‘abnormal’ by most people in a society, but it
does not break the law.
What is one reason that SCJS results may not be reliable?
Crimes without a specific victim (e.g. drug possession and speeding), crimes against businesses
(e.g. shoplifting) and crimes without a victim to interview (e.g. homicide) are not included in
the survey. As this does not include everyone in Scotland (and some people may not be honest
in their answers) the figures given in the SCJS are an estimate.
What is the US’ version of the SCJS?
The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the
US’s primary source of information on criminal victimization. Each year, data are obtained
from a nationally representative sample of about 240,000 interviews on criminal victimization,
involving 160,000 unique persons in about 95,000 households. Persons are interviewed on the
frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States.
The NCVS collects information on nonfatal personal crimes (i.e., rape or sexual assault,
robbery, aggravated and simple assault, and personal larceny) and household property crimes
(i.e., burglary/trespassing, motor-vehicle theft, and other theft) both reported and not
reported to police. Survey respondents provide information about themselves (e.g., age, sex,
race and Hispanic origin, marital status, education level, and income) and whether they
experienced a victimization.
What is a disparity between recorded police figures and the Crime Survey for England and Wales?
While the level of crime measured by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) has
been falling since a peak in 1995, the survey has consistently shown that most people
perceive that crime across the country as a whole has still been rising (although the
proportion of people reporting this has decreased in recent years). Total police recorded
crime decreased by 6% to approximately 5.7 million offences; this was driven by substantial
falls during the April to June 2020 period, particularly in theft offences.
Whilst crimes of a sexual nature are often the most distorted, what could explain this?
While recorded incidences of sexual assault are on the rise, this is more than likely down to
the fact that people are reporting such crimes more often. Many cases of sexual assault that
are recorded are historic and have perhaps happened decades ago and the victims are only now
coming forward. These reports will be recorded now rather than at the time they happened,
making it look like the crime rate is increasing – but it is not. This can, in part, be attributed
to the #MeToo movement started in the US after the New York Times published an article
about the actions of film producer Harvey Weinstein. Many women and men, not just involved
in the Weinstein case, have been deterred from coming forward to report sexual crimes
through fear from making thing worse or fear of not being believed.
Why are perceptions of crime distorted?
The media in Scotland, the UK and around the world
is far reaching and constant. One of the biggest
concerns regarding crime in the UK today is the
increase in knife crime. Newspapers contain
political bias and are likely to either
support/oppose the actions and responses of the
government. The number of incidents involving
knives has increased over the last number of years.
However, the biggest increases have been seen in
the bigger cities in England – this is not the same
for the whole of the UK.
The media have created a moral panic regarding knife crime. Describe this.
The media have created what is known as a “moral
panic” – a moral panic is a widespread fear, most
often an irrational one, that someone or something
is a threat to the values, safety, and interests of a
community or society at large. Typically, a moral
panic is perpetuated by the news media and fuelled
by politicians. Scotland, however, has managed to
turn the tide of incidents involving weapons as the
number of young people carrying offensive weapons
in Scotland by 85 per cent between 2009-2019.
