Is the Majority of Crime in our Society Violent in Nature - Coursework Example

Is the Majority of Crime in our Society Violent in Nature Name Institution Professor Course Date Is the Majority of Crime in our Society Violent in Nature Introduction It is not easy to state the exact proportion of crime that is violent in our society. Most Australians overestimate their chances of being victims of offenses such as assault and robbery. The suspicion of the public that crime is violent may not be necessarily based on facts. The media, politicians, and other influential individuals mislead the public on the nature of crime in Australia (Weatherburn, 2004). When the levels of crime go up the media report that at face value without specifying what type of crimes have gone up. When the crime figures reduce it is said that the public is not reporting crime to the police or the relevant authority. The media started warning Australians that the level of crime was on the rise, since 1840s. This has continued to date, prompting the question of why people have not been ‘engulfed’ by the crime. Violent crime is a human behavior against other persons or property with an intention of threatening or causing physical harm and includes sexual assault, robbery, homicide, and many more (Macmillan, 2009-2011). Non-violent crime however, does not cause physical harm to the victims and include theft, forgery, among others. All these crimes are prone to happen in any society. It is an accepted scenario by both the public and the politicians that the rate of crime is increasing in Australia. The perception has led to the decrease of the people’s quality of life as they have to live in fear. It has been a challenge to get the actual level of crime as most of it is not reported to the police for documentation. There are some national victimization surveys that were conducted by the Australia Bureau of Statistics. In one of the surveys, a third of the violent crimes reported were assault, quarters were sexual assaults, while half of them were robbery cases (Barclay, 2007). From the same report it was clear that most of the violent cases were not reported due to the fear of stigmatization. Due to the large number of unreported cases of violent crime, the increase noted in the violent crimes largely depended on the effectiveness of police in keeping records. The increase in recording the cases of the violent crimes may signify the decrease in the unreported cases, otherwise referred to as dark figures of crime, other than an increase in the level of violent crime in the society. In order to deal with the uncertainty associated with depending on figures recorded by the police, there were attempts to use figures recorded by hospitals where victims of violent crime were admitted (Weatherburn, 2004). The reports also indicated an increase in violent crimes. The main challenge is that in the past there was some family violence that was never reported that will in the contemporary society be considered as assault. One type of violent crime that seems to have been accurately reported by police was homicide and so it has for along time been used as an indicator of the levels of violent crimes around the world. By 1991, Australia recorded moderate rate of homicide in comparison with other countries. Iceland reported a percentage rate of 1.9, Canada 2.1, United States 9.1, England 0.5, while Australia recorded 2.0 %. These rates were expressed as a number of homicides reported in a population of 100,000 people. The post war period of 1988 reported a relatively high rate of homicide, 2.4%. According to police records, there has been consistent increase in violent crime in Australia. These crimes vary from serious assault, robbery, and rape. For the last twenty years, homicide rates have remained moderate while the non-fatal violent crimes have been on the increase (Barclay, 2007). The increase noted in the police figures could be due to several factors such as improvement in technology, efficiency in data base management, changes in police procedures making it easier fro victims to report violent crimes, and changes in police attitude while recording statements from violent crime victims. Some criminologists argue that the increase in the recorded violence cases is due to increased productivity of the police but does not indicate that violence has been on the increase. A study was initiated in 1991 to find out why police records indicated a higher violent crime rates than the victimization surveys. It concluded that the high rates recorded by police could be attributed to their willingness to record assaults directed at police and the willingness of victims of domestic violence to report their cases to the police. These factors were an indication of an increase in police productivity other than an increase in the rate of violent crimes in Australia. Although the interpretation of crime rates can be challenging, there are some facts that cannot be disputed. Long time analysis indicate that the level of violent crime rate as indicated by homicide, to be the same or lower than it was eighty years ago. Studies based on USA and UK indicates that the rates of homicide have been on the decrease since the last century. In Australia and other countries, there are some instances where the rates of homicide have been on the increase (Barclay, 2007). The police records of crime including violent crime have increased consistently for the last thirty years. When compared to other countries such as Canada and New Zealand, the rate of homicide in Australia is moderate which reflects the role of socio cultural factors other than the effectiveness of the Australia’s policy. In all types of victims, the youth and the teenage group are highly represented and any changes in their population may affect the changes of homicide rates in Australia and other countries. According to statistics, about 31% of homicide cases reported and 23% of attempted murders, the offenders were family members. Other surveys conducted about the fear of crime reported that most people fear ‘unpredictable strangers’ (Grant, 2002). A survey that was conducted in 2006 indicated that around 61% of all homicides happened at home while 24% of them happened at the streets or in open field (Dearden, 2006). In 2007 the number of homicides was 284 which was a decrease from 354 that was recorded in 1996. The number of cases for motor vehicle theft was 70, 650 in 2007 (Putt, 2008). The rates of crime recorded by police in Australia between 2001 and 2003 showed a decline. There was a decrease in the rate of homicide and other related offenses such as abduction, robbery, unlawful entry with intent, and theft (Australian Social Attitudes, 2005). In 1993 there was a rate of 69 sexual assault victims for every population of 100,000 in Australia. The rate had increased to 92 by the year 2003. This increase did not represent an actual increase in sexual assault cases, but rather an indication of an improvement in the reporting of incidences to police (Australian Institute of Criminology: Crime Facts Info, 2005). Roughly, there were 18,000 incidences of robbery reported to the police in 2007 which was a 4% increase as compared to 2006 figures. Unarmed robbery cases also increased by 500 which represented a 6% increase (ABS, 2007). The society’s perception in Australia is that most people feel relatively safe while in their own neighbourhood (Kwiatkowski, 2005). Among the people interviewed those who were under the age of 34 years and had at least completed their bachelor’s degree, were more accurate and positive on the crime trends than other respondents (Indermaur, 2005). To understand the people’s awareness about the crime trends in Australia, a survey of social attitudes was conducted in 2003. In the results, about two-thirds of the respondents were for the idea that crime had increased moderately in the past two years, while a third of them thought that it had increased tremendously (Australian Social Attitudes, 2005). In opinion polls conducted in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s it was noted that 87% of the respondents believed that the penalties imposed by courts for violent crimes, were too lenient (Morgan Gallup Polls, Various Years). When asked whether the sentences given by courts were too severe to the victims, 76% of the respondents said that the sentences were not severe enough (Indermaur, 2005). Generally, people in Australia thought that crime offenders should be given stiffer penalties by courts. According to a survey done by the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes in 2003, 70% of the respondents affirmed that the law breakers should receive stiffer sentences from the courts (Indermaur, 2005). The media is said to influence the society’s perception on crime. Most studies have found out that media plays a major role in influencing people’s fear towards crime in the society although the validity of these studies was not conclusive (Reiner, 2002). Respondents who told the least accurate information concerning trends on crime had received their information from media channels such as radios and TVs (Indermaur, 2005). Contrary to media reports, the property offenses in Australia represented 85% of all the reported crime in 2003 (AIC, 2004). The feeling of safety in the Australians varied with different age groups with those aged 60 years and above feeling unsafe while walking alone after dark in their local area than the younger generation (James, 2002). Conclusion In conclusion more than half of the Australians interviewed in the International Crime Victim Survey thought their houses would be broken into within the nest one year. 36% of the respondents said that it was not likely to happen while only 2.5% reported their houses to have been bungled in the previous period of one year (Van Dijk, 2008). In addition, while the media reported that most people feared strangers, a survey indicated that only 3% of the female homicide victims were murdered by a stranger (AIC, 20040. With so much uncertainty about crime, the only way to address the issue will be to evaluate available evidence to determine whether the rate of crime is rising in Australia and how it compares to other countries (Weatherburn, 2004). Whether the media reports positively or negatively on the crime rates, what matters most is the real situation based on factual evidence. References ABS. (2007). Robbery on the Rise. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics. AIC. (2004). Facts & Figures: 2004. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. Australian Institue of Criminology: Crime Facts Info (2005). Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. Barclay, E. (2007). Crime in Rural Australia. Melbourne: Federation Press. Dearden, J. &. (2006). Homicide in Australia: National Homicide Monitoring Program. Australian Institute of Criminology. Canberra: Australian Institute Of Criminlogy. Friedrichsen, G. (1973). The Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed., Vol. II). Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. Grant, A. D. (2002). "Victims of Crime", in The Cambridge Hanbook of Australian Criminology. (P. Graycar A. and Grabosky, Ed.) Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Indermaur, D. &. (2005). Australian Social Attidues. Canberra. James, M. &. (2002). Crime and Older People in The Cambridge Handbook of Australian Criminology. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Kwiatkowski, M. a. (2005). Australian Crime: Facts and Figures 2005. Retrieved April 4, 2011, from Australian Institute of Criminology: http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/0/8/3/%7B0836C448-B0BB-4CF5-B984-36988AC26076%7Dfacts_and_figures_2005.pdf Macmillan. (2009-2011). Non-Violent Definition. Retrieved April 9, 2011, from Macmillan Dictionary: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/non-violent Morgan Gallup Polls.( Various Years). Melbourne: Morgan Roy Research Centre. Putt, J. (2008). Australian Crime: Facts and Figures. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. Van Dijk, J. K. (2008). Criminal Victimisation in International Perspective: Key Findings from the 2004-2005 ICVS and EUICS. Violent Crime Definition. (2001-2011). Retrieved March 29, 2011, from US Legal Inc.: http://definitions.uslegal.com/v/violent-crimes/ Weatherburn, D. (2004). Law and order in Australia: rhetoric and reality. Melbourne: Federation Press. Read More