Crime Statistics

• Gerbner


  Mean World Syndrome - better media coverage has led to the appearance that crime is increasing, causes people to perceive the world as more dangerous than it is.
• Marxist Approaches


  They reject official statistics because they show only what the powerful has chosen to crack down on, not the amount of crimes committed.
• Patterns of offending and victimhood

  Social class - working class victims and offenders more likely

  Income - lower income likely to be victim

  Ethnicity - minorities more likely to be victims

  Gender - women victims of sexual offences, men victim of violent crimes, men offenders

  Age - old people and young people victims, mid 20s offenders

  Location - cities have more crime
• Typical Victim


  Young, working class man, as they are most likely to underperform in education. But also Asian people victims of hate crime, women for sexual crimes and elderly for exploitative crimes.
• Victimhood Studies


  Wolfgang - monitored 558 homicides in Philadelphia, found in 26% the victim had in some way provoked the murder. He said the typical murder victim had a criminal history, violent past and substance issues, but the typical murder victim was the same as the typical murderer.
• Evaluating Wolfgang


  Unrepresentative location, no evidence linking substance abuse, blames the victims of crime
• Positivist Criminology 


  Tierney found 2 ways people become victims :

  1. victim proneness - member of certain social groups
  2. victim precipitation - actions that can lead to victimhood
• Evaluating Tierney


  Most crimes committed by someone known to victim so precipitation is unlikely, blames the victim, fails to offer solutions to victim proneness