BSc Criminology - Criminal Justice and the Crime Problem - Essay Example

It is useful to compare the trends in the data series. For example both charts give property crime the largest section (78 and 75 percent respectively). Looking at Tale 4.06 women are more likely to be attacked than men and younger women are more vulnerable than any other group. Overall non-married persons are more likely to be victims than married persons. To a certain extent identifying persons who are socialising outside the home as being more at risk is nonsense, since if one is attacked inside the home that becomes a burglary.

It would also be useful to know how many victims actually knew who the perpetrator was. On the figures given here one would assume that most crime is anonymous and yet we know this is not statistically true. Further, there is no breakdown by gender and we must ask the question are women more likely to be attacked whilst under the influence of alcohol or are they simply more likely to be victims of this type of crime regardless of sobriety? Whilst the survey states that people who had left the house for less than three hours a day were significantly less likely to have been victimised this actually tells us very little.

As one ages one has fewer reasons to be away from home for extended periods of time. As noted earlier, if one is attacked in one’s home the name of the crime changes. The survey indicates that marital status affects the risk of being a victim of theft from the person. That is hardly surprising given that the majority of persons in England are beneath marriageable age and it is the non-marrieds who are more likely to have the time and spending power to be out socialising in urban areas. It is also more likely to be a reflection of the fact that 2 out of every 3 marriages in England/Wales end in divorce.

The immediate difficulty with data presented in the format of Figure 6.3 is that it actually makes it difficult to determine what one is seeing. For example we are asked to view the data by