Measurments

The three major measurements of crime are Uniform Crime Reports, The National Crime Victimization Survey and The Self-Reporting Studies appears to measure crime from different perspectives. The Uniform Crime Reports gathers information collected from the nations polices precincts. This measurement appears to be more from the law enforcement perspective and are subject to its biases. The National Crime Victimization Survey attempts to collect data about crime context, settings and characteristics of the victims. This measurement appears to be more from a Victim perspective and focuses on gathering statics about victims of crimes. Since this method interviews victims there may be some groups that are reported victims more then others and this may reflect their perspective more then others. Victims may also mistakenly interpret noncriminal events as crimes as well so this data may be subject to errors related to these areas. The Self-reporting studies interview offenders. This method may measure crime from the perspective of the criminal. Just like other methods, this may focus on one group more then others, as there may be one groups that are convicted of crimes more then others. Essentially, none of these measurement methods are perfect. I believe the researcher should use all three methods together to get a measurements that is more accurate then the individual method. Even then there will be a lot of data the is missing, as there are a lot of crimes that are not reported, under reported and over emphasized. 

Myths

***1) What are some of the more common myths surrounding crime in our society? What are the major effects of these myths? Why is an understanding of these myths important?

•Crime is rampant
•Crime is overly violent
•Minorites are more involved in crime and are less likely to be crime victims
•Teenagers are more involved in violent crime
•Crime victims are particularly virtuous

The effects of these myths are
•Much of the public is ignorant about many aspects of crime and its control.
•The public exaggerates the number of crimes that occur and may think crime is rising when it's actually falling.
•Greater public concern about crime. The more people watch the news/crime shows, the more they fear crime.
•Crime's underlying social and cultural forces, including neighborhood conditions.
•Attention is diverted from white-collar crime and reinforces negative feelings about poor people.
•The media's exaggeration of the violent criminality of African Americans and Latinos and it's underplaying of their victimization reinforces negative stereotypes  about these groups' violent tendencies.

It is important to understand these myths so, we are not so influanced by what we see and hear from main stream media. It is important to understand that crime does not have any social or economic boundry. Crimes are commited be all kinds of people. Also everyone has the potential to be a victim. 

***2) From existing research data, what do we know about the public's fear of crime? Provide some examples in your answer.

According ot research people have a fear of becoming a victim of a crime. People are afraid if in un familiar places, at night and encountering young men. The variation stems from both structural factors and individual characteristics.

Structural factors include neighborhoods with low social integration, poor living conditions and higher population of non-whites. ALso the larger to population the greater the fear of crime.