NCJ Number
95791
Journal
New Community Dated: (Winter 1982) Pages: 233-242
Date Published
1982
Length
10 pages
Annotation
A 1979 victim survey conducted in the inner city of Birmingham, England, found that public reactions to crime varied by race and that policing was less available to minority races than to whites.
Abstract
From a target sample of 690 households, 531 were interviewed. Over a 12-month reference period, 30.7 percent said they had been crime victims. Although variations in victimization according to race were negligible, this was not so for public reactions to crime. Only 39.5 percent of the incidents were reported to the police. Two of the three variables correlating significantly with the propensity to report pertained to ethnicity: race and birthplace. White respondents had the most faith in the police. A large portion -- 71.4 percent -- felt vulnerable to crime, while 66.3 percent admitted that this affected their behavior in some way. These attitudinal and behavioral reactions to crime varied according to race. West Indians were least apt to believe that local crime was higher than average or to feel unsafe as a consequence. Whites experienced the most fear and had the greatest tendency to identify high levels of crime in their neighborhood. There is an urgent need to implement effective strategies in those areas of the inner city where popular images of crime, fear of crime, and race relations appear inseparable. Tables, endnotes, and 40 references are provided.