Perceptions About Crime Rates

It was reported in 1998 that crime has not changed much over the last 30 years, but the ways crime is detected, the information processed, and how it is dealt with have changed significantly, and often leads to public misconceptions (Part, 1998). There is a greater recognition of violence against women today, and there is gang violence, but the gang violence is not as widespread as most people believe. It is confined mostly to Los Angeles and Chicago. There has been a rise in lethal violence, and especially in assaults with weapons and homicides in which guns were involved.

Because of gang activity in some places, the juvenile crime rate is up in those areas, and violence against women and children is increasing, but this can also be explained in some areas by gang violence, e.g. accidental shootings (Part, 1998). There has been an increasing racial concentration of crimes, and the number of drug-related crimes has definitely increased. However the

. . .
a spontaneous act: over 75 percent of rapes are planned. Group rapes are 90 percent planned. There is a widespread misconception about White women being raped by colored men, but in fact a study showed that 90 percent of rapes occur between people of the same ethnic or racial group, and in the 10 percent of interracial rapes, they are most often committed by White men against Black women. The persistence of these misconceptions determines public policy in the criminal proceedings concerning rape, and the establishment of policies regarding the punishment for rapists. Legislators often ignore the differences in distribution of crime rates, spending money all over the country when most of the crime occurs in major metropolitan areas (Part, 1998). Little crime is actually taking place in the suburbs and in rural areas, yet dollars are diverted there which could better be spent in the inner cities, because the misconception is that "crime is increasing everywhere!" During the 1990s, violent crime increased in some cities and even in some rural areas, but it also decreased in others. The distribution of crime needs to be known before allotting money for its prevention otherwise crime prevention dollars are wasted. Rather
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Sydney Violent, United Excluded, Angeles Chicago, Matthew Robinson, White Black, Victimization Surveys, , Justice Department, Netherlands America, Rifle Association, violent 1996, crime rates, feb 11 2006, retrieved feb 11, feb 11, retrieved feb, 11 2006, los angeles, public misconceptions, rapes occur, gang violence, rapes committed, excluded harms harmful, misconceptions crime rates,
Approximate Word count = 1971
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Perceptions About Crime Rates