Describe what Psychologists have found out about crime-victim interaction.

A2 Psychology WES Oliver Quaye 13.3

Describe what Psychologists have found out about crime-victim interaction. (10)

One surprising fact that psychologists have found is that, in general, those members or groups of society that are statistically more vulnerable to be a victim of crime are those who fear it the least, and vice versa. For instance, Hollin (1992) carried out research on fear of crime, in which young men pertained to having the least fear of becoming a victim of personal assault, while the responses of elderly women showed them to be the most fearful. This is a mismatch Empey’s (1982) findings, which shows young males, who tend to feel ‘invincible’ to be the most frequent victims of personal assault, and elderly and apparently ‘vulnerable’ women to be the least! Empey also concluded that, in general, males, the young and black are statistically more vulnerable than females, the elderly and whites to become a victim of crime. From these observations, we can see that the fear and reality of crime are two separate issues, often connected to social stereotypes of who is most at risk.

Psychologists have also found that the media provides the public with a misrepresented view of crimes levels and circumstance than compared to the statistical data provided by official crime statistics. An example is the BCS (British Crime Survey), the government’s annual survey into adult’s experience of victimisation in the previous year. The BCS looks at people’s attitudes to crime, such as how much they fear crime and what measures they take to avoid it. The 1996 BCS found that two-thirds of people believed the crime level was rising, and one-third believed it to be rising a lot, but in fact the overall crime rate had dropped by 10% in the previous two years. Dorfman and Schiraldi (2000), reviewed 77 crime-related media articles, and compared their observations with the official national crime data. They conclude that media coverage of crime misconstrues the frequency of crime in general, particularly violent crime and the ethnicity and age of both the perpetrators and victims of crime. Howitt (1998), in a study on the media’s fascination with violent crime states,

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“The media tend to focus on the exceptional, the bizarre and the horrific…” Cumberbatch (1998) estimated that in a single year the average person would be exposed to 7000 crimes through the media, including fictional crimes from films and TV, which is a very unreal indication the level a crime anyone will experience personally in a year. For instance, 86% of white murder victims are killed by other whites and, overall, whites are three times as likely to be victimised by other Whites as by minorities. There is a very small likelihood that a white adult will have the unfortunate opportunity to form an opinion about black youth violence based on personal experience. Since people’s fear of crime appears to ignore the official crime statistics, we can see that perception of levels of danger and risk comes from the media, which doesn’t portray a representative picture, so most consequentially most people will have an equally unrepresentative perception of crime levels.

b) Evaluate what Psychologists have found out about crime-victim interaction (16)

Zedner (1994) also argued that studies regarding fear of crime could be skewed due to the social pressure of the participants to conform to stereotypes. He argues that some men would be afraid to express a fear of crime in a questionnaire or survey, because it is an expression of weakness, which ‘real’ men are not supposed to exhibit. Similarly, women in these surveys, after being socialised to be the ‘weaker’ sex, may answer in accordance with these incorrect presumptions based on gender. These socialisations also apply to the young and elderly, and explain why crime surveys show young men to have a lesser crime related fears, while being statistically more likely to become a victim of crime. These observations are based on social psychology, and can be compared to Zimbardos theory of social roles in society, which he tested in his prison simulation. In this experiment, he found that his participants would conform to the role in which they were assigned (prisoner or guard), and exhibited the characteristics of their role. For example, the guards assumed their authority with relish, and begun to humiliate and persecute the prisoners as portrayed in the media. Similarly, the prisoners were completely subservient to the guards, and some assumed their roles so well that they forgot it was an experiment. Of course, Zimbardos study raised several ethical questions as to the harm he caused his participants. This issue is in contrast to the methods used for crime psychology, which generally use unobtrusive methods such as the questionnaire.

Since crime surveys use a large number of participants, the most widely used tool for them is questionnaires, since they can be administered to many people and be standardised to maintain validity. However, questionnaires have several drawbacks, since survey methods are quantitive, which doesn’t allow for contextualisation of responses, in other words why a person has a particular fear or worry, it just registers that they do. Quantitive surveys reduce complex feelings and perceptions to statistical data by categorising responses, which ignores the complexity of issues. Qualitative research, such as case studies would overcome this, because a detailed account of a persons fears, but more importantly, the catalyst of their fears can tell us far more. Of course, in the large numbers that these surveys are carried out case studies or any other qualitative method would provide many financial and practical problems in its execution, which is why surveys and questionnaires are preferable. This method of psychological investigation can be compared to the case study method, which is far more in depth. An example of a case study would be Freud’s analysis of little Hans, in which Freud conducted in-depth one on one interviews with the boy and his father, to provide a comprehensive reasoning behind his irrational fears. However, this method has high experimenter effects, and is not replicable to any suitable number of people since any case study can differ. This methodological problem can be compared to those encountered by crime surveys, as they are not generally representative. Surveys such as the BCS have sampling problems, since most crime surveys are bound by law not to solicit the views of minors, so the under 16-group, a group heavily associated with crime, are not part of the crime surveys. Unreported crime also plays a big part in how reliable crime statistics are in telling us the level of crime. Several crimes go unreported for practical and impractical reasons, and if these crimes are not included in surveys such as the BCS, then we must ask how true a representation they depict. These crimes include sexual assault, domestic violence, drug taking and minor crimes that people feel are too trivial to report, such as minor acts of vandalism or theft. For instance, Hollin estimates that only 25% of all crimes appear in official statistics, leaving a ‘black hole’ in all crime figures.

c) I am being asked to develop a campaign to increase the level of crime reporting.

One of the main reasons why people do not report crime is a lack of trust for the police or that they will not be able to do anything. To combat this lack of trust, it would be beneficial to the police to abandon their traditional uniforms. This might seem drastic, but as Tajfel has proven, when we see clear noticeable differences between two groups of people, we tend to discriminate against them. Since the police are clearly distinguishable by their uniforms and equipment (panda cars etc), then they are, in effect, a separate group from average citizens who report crimes. Perhaps if the police were not viewed as ‘them’ then people would feel more comfortable in reporting their crimes to them. An increased police presence would also help improve the reputation of the police and therefore the amount of trust that the public have in them. Concerning the police not being able to help if people they report a crime, the police would probably overcome this if they solved more crimes!

I would start a police support unit, this would help to capitalise on the research done by Feldman, Summers and Ashworth. They said that victims of violent crime are more likely to report crime if they have support from the police when they enquire about making a report.

Also, I think that you would have to start to do something to improve the reputation of the police all together, this would mean a major shake up in the policing system.

Crime