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.