NCJ Number
98877
Date Published
1985
Length
17 pages
Annotation
A self-report questionnaire survey of 437 students in 2 colleges in the northeastern United States revealed that the rate of property crimes within the family is far greater than the rate of similar crimes known to occur outside the family.
Abstract
The respondents represented 97 percent of the 450 students who received the questionnaires. Instead of using legal terms about crimes, the questionnaire asked respondents about eight acts that were roughly equivalent to forgery, larceny, robbery, vandalism, larceny with fraud, and extortion. During the year of the survey, a property crime occurred in 73 percent of the families in the sample. The particular crimes reported were rarely isolated incidents. In fact, over 15,000 crimes were reported in these families during the study year. Some of the acts were not always prosecutable crimes; however, the respondents may have forgotten some instances or had not been aware of all criminal acts between other family members. The more serious crimes occurred less often than the less serious crimes. Brother-to-brother crimes were the most common. Mothers were the second most frequent victims, perhaps because of keeping cash in a known case or perhaps because of less fear keeping cash in a known case or perhaps because of less fear of a severe negative response. About one in four parents committed property crimes against one another. One of seven mothers and one of seven fathers victimized the respondents. No important differences existed in the levels of property crimes in families of low and high socioeconomic status. Data tables, footnotes, and 14 references are included.