NCJ Number
231319
Date Published
July 2010
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This study used statistical modeling based on data from the 2007 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes in order to examine the relationship between gender, age, education, and sources of information on crime in the Australian context.
Abstract
The study reinforces the main findings of most previous studies on public perceptions of crime, i.e., that there are significant misperceptions of crime, both in terms of the number of incidences and trends in crime. The study found that older survey respondents were more likely to have the inaccurate view that the crime rate is increasing; there has actually been an overall decline in crime. Males were more likely than females to perceive accurately that the crime rate is decreasing. Reasons for these gender differences in perceptions of crime rates should be researched. Postsecondary education also influenced the degree to which individuals perceived that crime rates have increased over the past 2 years. Those with higher education were more likely to have accurate perceptions of crime rates compared to those with lower educational levels. Entertainment preferences were also related to perceptions of crime rates. Those who relied on family and television as primary sources of information were more likely to have misperceptions of crime rates. The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes is a cross-sectional mail survey that has been conducted in 2003, 2006, and 2007, with replication of some questions in the three surveys. The survey was mailed to 20,000 randomly selected individuals drawn from the Australian electoral roll. Of these, 8,133 completed the survey, which was sufficient for a reliable analysis. 2 tables, 2 figures, and 19 references