NCJ Number
174724
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Education Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: Fall 1997 Pages: 135-143
Date Published
1997
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Questionnaires were administered to 323 introductory students and 45 seniors majoring in criminal justice at a large urban university to determine how well students understood the magnitude of the crime problem relative to other mortality conditions.
Abstract
Students were told in the questionnaires that about 200,000 Americans died annually from alcohol-related conditions and that 920,000 Americans died annually from cardiovascular disease. They were asked to estimate the annual number of deaths due to tobacco and cocaine use and the annual number of deaths caused by homicide, suicide, and car accidents and to assess the seriousness of homicide as a social problem relative to other conditions listed in the questionnaires. Almost 50 percent of introductory students estimated that 250,000 or more murders were committed each year in the United States; 15 percent estimated that 1 million or more murders occurred annually. Estimates of seniors were significantly more accurate than those of introductory students, but both groups tended to overestimate crime-related mortality. The poor student grasp of crime-related mortality is attributed to the media emphasis on crime, the "mean world" syndrome, and innumeracy. The authors suggest criminal justice educators need to be aware of the magnitude of public misperceptions related to crime and potential causes of mistaken beliefs. 30 references and 3 tables