Crime, Crime News, and Crime Views

This paper compares police, newspaper, television, and publicimages of crime trends for the seven FBI index crimes over time,the relative frequency of occurrence of these offenses, andthe characteristics of persons committing them. Media presentationsof crime trends over time are found generally unrelated to trendsin police statistics. Newspaper presentation of the relativedistribution of crimes approximates police figures more closelythan does the television presentation. Public views of the relativedistribution of crimes but not of crime trends more closelyapproximate media presentations than police presentations. Television'simpact on public views of crime is apparently minor. Reasonsfor these findings and their implications for crime news reportingare discussed.     

Elijah the Prophet in Crime and Punishment

Post-Soviet scholarship has produced a plethora of new studies on Konstantin Pobedonostsev, focusing on his political “conservatism” and its current relevance. This scholarship, however, has marginalized two critical dimensions – the religious (so important to Pobedonostsev) and the transnational (so powerful a force because of post-1870 globalization). This study offers a critique of the new scholarship and draws on archival materials to reassess Pobedonostsev’s role as chief procurator (ober-prokuror) of the Holy Synod. Here it is argued that: (1) Pobedonostsev was not the embodiment of sterile negativism (as many claimed), but rather insisted that the change be gradual and based on Russian reality, not foreign models; (2) Pobedonostsev’s influence declined not only in the government (as is well known), but also in the Church; (3) Pobedonostsev became increasingly alienated from the “Church” and clergy, coming to identify with “simple believers”; (4) to meet their needs, Pobedonostsev laboured to build parish schools and reopen parish churches, and in the 1890s focused on religious writing; (5) at odds with the Church hierarchy, Pobedonostsev increasingly identified with the parishioners as the real repository of piety.     

Narratives of Crime and Criminals: How Places Socially Construct the Crime Problem1

A common narrative about crime in the contemporary United States is that offenders are primarily young black men living in poor urban neighborhoods committing violent and drug‐related crimes. There is also a local context to community, crime, and fear that influences this narrative. In this article, I address how narratives of crime and criminals play out differently within particular places. The article is based on participant observation and interviews conducted in two high‐crime Boston‐area communities. Although both communities are concerned with stereotypical offenders, there are differential community constructions of crime, formed through interactions between crime narratives and place identities. In one, crime is a community problem, in which both offenders and victims are community members. In the other, outsiders commit crime against community members. Media portrayals of crime and community, community race and class identities, and concerns over neighborhood change all contribute to place‐specific framing of “the crime problem.” These frames, in turn, shape both intergroup dynamics and support for criminal justice policy.     

Internal Migration and Crime in the Soviet Union

This paper analyses the changes in ethnic self-identification of the population of Ukraine from the last (January 1989) Soviet census to the first (December 2001) Ukrainian census. It begins with a comparison of the census data and describes the remarkable changes observed. Given the incomplete nature of published data on international migrations and their differentiation by ethnic groups in the inter-census period, the paper applies a method to fill in the gaps and calculate net migration balances for each ethnic group. Also, since no data is available on the net reproductive rates for separate ethnic groups in Ukraine, it sets out a method to estimate net reproduction rates for Ukrainians and Russians in the inter-census period. Using these methods, it establishes that differences in net migration on the one hand and the differences in net reproduction on the other contributed 11.1 and 4.4 percent of the growth in the share of Ukrainians and 6.8 and 5.2 percent in the sizeable decline in the share of Russians. The remaining lion’s share is a shift in identity among members of ethnically mixed (mainly Russian-Ukrainian) families. Mothers of ethnically mixed families, identifying the ethnicity of their newly born, contributed 11.4 percent to the Ukrainian gain and 9.2 percent to the Russian loss. The remaining 73.1 percent of the Ukrainian gain and 78.8 percent of Russian loss resulted from lifetime identity shift from Russian to Ukrainian, the most likely candidates being members of Russian-Ukrainian families.     

Exploring the Social Construction of Crime by Neighborhood: News Coverage of Crime in Boston

ABSTRACT

Information disseminated by the news shapes the way that the public perceives criminal events, often providing a distorted view of crime. Previous research has largely overlooked neighborhoods in discussions of how the news portrays crime. This study examines the ways that the news media report the neighborhoods in which homicides, robberies, and assaults are committed. Multiple theoretical perspectives rooted in the law of opposites and racial typification provide differing explanations for the reporting of crime. Using Boston as a test site, this study employs a content analysis of The Boston Globe crime articles to identify the neighborhoods in which instances of homicide, robbery, and assault receive coverage. A comparison with official crime data from the Boston Police Department suggests differences in neighborhood reporting trends for robbery and assault but not for homicide. Specifically, the news media tend to disproportionately report more robberies and assaults in neighborhoods with lower levels of neighborhood disadvantage. Implications for the social construction of crime and neighborhoods as well as criminal justice response for disadvantaged neighborhoods are discussed.     

Crime and partnerships

This paper tests whether being convicted of a crime affects marriage market outcomes. While it is relatively well documented that crime hurts in terms of reduced future income, there has been little systematic analysis on the association between crime and marriage market outcomes. This paper exploits a detailed Danish register-based data set to fill this gap in the literature. The main findings are that male convicts do not face lower transition rates into partnerships as such, but they face a lower chance of forming partnerships with females from more well-off families. In addition males who are convicted face a significantly higher dissolution risk than their law abiding counterparts.     

Perception of changes in the cost of living

A survey of 122 Christchurch residents revealed systematic underestimation of the extent to which costs in New Zealand have risen during the period 1967–1983. The extent of the underestimation was largely unaffected by demographic and attitudinal variables measured and was not reflected in or related to estimates of the inflation rate. The results are consistent with previous experimental work showing systematic misperception of exponential growth.     

Black Violence and Crime in the 21st Century

Abstract

Although a number of perspectives have been represented as frameworks for analyzing crime and violence perpetuated by African Americans, no analysis can replace a socio-historical perspective. By carefully studying the works of W.E.B. Du Bois a sharper analysis of black crime and violence can be clearly delineated.     

Evaluating the Problem Gambling Severity Index

A large, integrated survey data set provided by the Ontario Problem Gambling Centre was used to investigate psychometric properties of the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI). This nine-item self-report instrument was designed to measure a single, problem gambling construct. Unlike its nearest competitor—the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS)—the PGSI was designed specifically for use with a general population rather than in a clinical context. The present analyses demonstrated that the PGSI does assess a single, underlying, factor, but that this is complicated by different, multiple factor structures for respondents with differing levels of problem gambling severity. The PGSI also demonstrated small to moderate correlations with measures of gambling frequency and faulty cognitions. Overall, the PGSI presents a viable alternative to the SOGS for assessing degrees of problem gambling severity in a non-clinical context.

Television Viewing and the Perception of Affluence*

Paralleling research on the effects of television on cognitions regarding violence, this study examines the effects of television on perceptions of the extent of affluence in the United States. Television's frequent portrayal of America as a highly affluent society suggests that perceptions of affluence are positively related both to amount of television viewing and to perceived veracity of television, and that the effects of television viewing are strongest among persons who attribute the greatest veracity to television's depiction of American life. An analysis of survey data provides little support for these hvpotheses. Although moderately strong positive relationships exist between affluence perceptions and both amount of television viewing and perceived veracity of television, these zero-order relationships are spurious associations accounted for by class-related variables, especially education.     

Young Children's Perception of the Elderly

Abstract

Young children's perceptions of the elderly were examined using Child-Adolescent Facts on Aging Quiz in order to assess what relationships exist between perception and contact with the elderly, gender, and age. Comparisons were also made between the findings in this study and a previous one in the United States of America. One hundred and twenty respondents comprising fifty males and seventy females from two primary schools answered the questionnaire. The mean age of the respondents was 10.6 years and about 63% had at least a living grandparent. The results revealed that the mean percentage error was 47%. Item 6-“most older workers do not work as well as younger workers” had the highest error rate of 83% while item 4-“old people are not as strong as younger people” had the lowest error rate of 16%. All the three variables were found not to have any influence on the respondent's perception of the elderly. Some similarities and differences in perception of the elderly were found in the Nigerian and American samples. The implications of these findings are discussed and further areas of research suggested.     

Crime and International Tourism

Using a panel data set of European countries, this paper investigates the impact of crime on international tourism. Violent crimes are negatively associated with incoming international tourists and international tourism revenue indicating that international tourists consider the risk of victimization when choosing a location to visit. This impact is smaller in magnitude in Southern European countries with a coastline which are generally more attractive tourist destinations in terms of sea tourism, suggesting that victimization risk and attractiveness of the destination may be substitutable traits.     

Adolescent Perception of Sex-Roles in 1968 and 1975

Findings from a study of 798 sixth- and seventh-grade studentsin Milwaukee in 1974–75 were compared to those from astudy of 470 Baltimore sixth- and seventh-grade children in1968 to see if the new feminist ideology has had an effect ongirls' self-esteem and attitudes toward their own sex. Resultsindicate few differences between the two studies. Girls in 1974–75still demonstrated lower self-esteem and a less high evaluationof their sex-role than did their male counterparts