Issue and Reporting of Crime

Crime:

Over the past 3 decades, crime has continued to be a major issue that has attracted huge public concern characterized with discussion and action that are usually unbalanced and not likely to lessen crime rates. The public concern has also been accompanied by political action and major public expenditure to reduce such incidents. Political discussion and actions as well as public expenditure have played a major role in the reduction of crime rates in the recent past. Recent reports have indicated that crime rates have sharply declined despite the lack of consensus on how to deal with criminal activity. Actually, by the beginning of the 20th Century, crime rates had declined to their lowest possible levels in a generation.

The recent declines in crime rates indicate that law enforcement organizations are at important junctures in their initiatives to deal with criminal activity and further reduce crime rates. Despite the increased decline, the public still remains more concerned with crime or criminal activities. According to findings of various reports and surveys, crime continues to be a major cause for national concern (Romer, Jamieson & Aday, 2003, p.88). This concern is characterized with widespread fear of criminal activities. Public concern regarding crime is fueled by various factors including response by policy makers, consideration of crime as a societal problem, and individual differences.

Nonetheless, the main cause of increased public concern on crime despite decline in crime rates is media coverage. The media has affected public perception on this issue and contributed to the widespread fear of crime. The media conditions the public's fear of victimization, perceptions of places where offenses are likely to take place, and people stereotyped as normal perpetrators or victims of such incidents. As a result, media coverage perpetuates fear of crime and makes it to become an issue of increased concern to the public.

Crime Reporting:

One of the most important elements in fighting crime and reducing crime rates is crime reporting by the public and/or victims. Despite being an important aspect in fighting crime, many people do not report such incidents to law enforcement personnel. Actually, a huge percentage of criminal activities that occur annually go un-reported to the police. While significant gains have been made to promote the public's engagement in crime fighting through reporting, crime reporting is still very low. Annual police records have constantly indicated that a huge portion of criminal incidents that occur go un-reported.

There are various reasons attributed to the fact that many crimes are not reported to the police by the public and/or victims. Some of the most common reasons for this trend include consideration of the offense as a personal matter, fear of revenge, increasing lack of confidence in the police, reluctance, and consideration of some offenses as less-serious (Gest, 2012). For victims who consider an offense as a personal matter, they do not report it to the police since they prefer to deal with it through other means. Reluctance and fear of revenge are factors that are either caused by another reason or lack of a single major reason. The growing lack of confidence is because of the feeling that the police wouldn't or couldn't do anything about the crime. In addition, some victims prefer not to report crime because they consider it less-serious, especially those that do not involve a weapon or cause injury.