NCJ Number
108517
Journal
Criminology Volume: 25 Issue: 3 Dated: (August 1987) Pages: 455-485
Date Published
1987
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This study of citizen crime perceptions and sterotypes used ethnographic methods to develop a questionnaire which then was administered to college students in three undergraduates sociology classes.
Abstract
Results of factor analytic, matrix comparison, and regression techniques indicate that perceptions of crime are complex phenomena that include much more than judged seriousness. Crime stereotypes were coherently organized around a few basic perceptions such as level of violence, amount of property harm, level of sex relatedness, and possibly a few others. While data affirm that there is general agreement about crime seriousness, they suggest significant disagreement regarding crime stereotypes. While for the majority, violence marks crimes as sick, serious, and immoral and attributes are seen as related, a minority of respondents distinguish among them. In general, these differences in crime sterotypes were related to differences in social experience, maturity, and sophistication. The most important conclusion from results is that agreement about any single crime perception including seriousness, does not imply agreement about other features. 4 tables, 9 figures, and 34 references. (Author abstract modified)