NCJ Number
98522
Date Published
1985
Length
120 pages
Annotation
Key findings from the second sweep of the British Crime Survey (BCS), conducted in England and Wales in 1984, cover the extent of crime, reasons for reporting or not reporting crimes to the police, the impact of crime, the fear of crime, and public attitudes toward sentencing and neighborhood watch programs.
Abstract
Data on the extent of crime in 1983 cover estimates of both reported and unreported crimes. The crimes included in the survey were vandalism, theft of or from a motor vehicle, burglary, bicycle theft, assault, robbery, sexual offenses, and other personal thefts. Changes in crime patterns from 1981 to 1983 are noted. A detailed look at the reporting and nonreporting of crime examines why people reported some crimes and not others and why some people reported crimes others would not report. The chapter on the impact of crime summarizes survey findings on the financial costs of crime, the practical and emotional consequences of victimization, and victims' attitudes toward victim support schemes. Findings on the fear of crime relate respondents' demographic characteristics to degrees of fear of crime and note which crimes occasion the most fear. The concluding chapter presents findings on respondents' attitudes toward punishment in general and the sentencing of the perpetrator of their own victimization. The survey of attitudes toward neighborhood watch programs found generally positive responses. Appendixes contain survey design details. Fifty references are listed, and a glossary is provided.