Understanding Crime

Which crimes are reported?

The crimes which are the most commonly reported are burglary,theft of a vechile,criminal damage or violence from one person towards to another. The most common crime reported overall is fighting in a public place. Vandalism is often reported aswell. These could be considered not the most damaging or dangerous crimes.

Reasons why some crimes are not reported

Two of the most common crimes which arent reported is domestic violence and rape. This is sometimes due to embarassment or the victim being ashamed of what has happened to them. Sometimes there is a difficult situation, for example domestic violence is often carried out by your partner so to get help and 'snitch' on someone you love could be hard.

The role of the media in amplifying crime

Crime is constantly hitting the headlines and people who read about it or watch it sometimes find this entertaining. The media can affect the way people perceive crime. If someone has been punished for that crime,the medias affect can influence the public to feel sympathy for that person,even if they are a criminal. The media also usually portrays women and children to be victims,when there are many male victims of crimes such as domestic violence.

Data for criminal acts

In England and Wales a survey was carried out in 2002 and 11.3 million crimes were recorded. The risk of crime went down by 2% but crimes such as robbery and drug offences incresed. The report also showed that crimes such as burglary and sexual offences had decreased.

Thats some good research there katherine.
well done

Nice one Katherine.

But even if crimes such as rape are reported only a fraction (something like less than 5%) are convicted and therefore do not get entered as crimes!

There are also victimless crimes that don't appear in statistics - underage sex and drinking rank high and so do sex crimes as well.

What makes corporate crime different from 'normal' crime?

Corporate crime is different because it is an illegal act by a group of people or an individual within that group to maximise profit or to benefit the group. Examples might be breaches of health and safety laws by big oil companies dumping pollutants in third world countries rahter than getting rid of the toxins safely. At the lowest level, it could be fly-tipping...

It could be argued that it is much worse than 'normal' crime because it is done by people who should know better and who exploit the power of their corporations to damage the powerless.

I see that it affects a lot of people and I agree that it is wrong to exploit people in the third world but how can it be worse than rape? The complete and utter destruction that this causes to one individual cannot be measured.