Crimeperception of Crime in Australia

Perception of crime in Australia

Name:

University:

Tutor:

Course:

Date:

Introduction

Crime is defined as an act of breaking or violation of the law .a crime is punishable by the government through imprisonment or paying bail, crimes range from petty crimes such as pick pocketing to capital crime such as murder or robbery with violence

Policy making in Australia is affected by many factors including public perception .policies in criminal justice are used to determine the kind of punishment that is to be given to offenders, its also used to classify the degree and severity of crimes and also allocating the required resource to the criminal justice agencies. Using public perception to make policy can lead to bad policy formulation this is because there is a huge discrepancy that exists between the actual crimes committed and what the public holds as the rate of crime in their country. This is true in Australia where people perceive that crime is on the increase while in the actual sense its declining (Rex & Tonry 2002; Roberts & Indermaur 2009), the same pattern was also reported in the united states during the last decade (Maguire & Pastore 1999). In Australia the elderly, women and illiterate people believe that crime rate is increasing compared to men and the literate who believe otherwise (Indermaur & Roberts 2005) In 2007 according to Australian bureau of statistics (2008) murders reported were less than in 1998 this showed a decline in crime rate. Crime rate in police records do not usually tally with the view being held by the public (rex & tonry 2002).

Studies conducted show that majority of people believe that rate of crime is high in Australia and continue to increase when actually it is on the decline (weatherburn & indermaur 2004).the Experience and expressive theories are two theories that may help us to understand how public perception is formed (tyler and boeckman 1997).Experience theory explain that...