Crime Myths

1.) There are many crime myths that are present in our society today. Many of them have to do with the way the media portrays crime coverage. The media has a tendency of “overdramatizing” when it comes to reporting crime, which can be very misleading. They have a way of getting people to believe that everything they say is true even when it is inaccurate. Some of the more common myths that surround crime in today’s society are: crime is rampant, crime is overly violent, racial and ethnic minorities define types of crimes committed, youth are more violent and virtuous victims in crimes draw more attention. Of course crime is widespread across the country and there maybe certain places that have more crime than others, but the way the media

Racial profiling occurs with the way crime is headlined in the news and young people too are portrayed to be very violent criminals because of those types of headlines. Crimes committed that have low victimization rates foster people’s concern on crime because the media gives more coverage on them. The major effects of these myths are: public ignorance on the aspects of crime, public fear and concern about crime, obscuring and underlying on social and cultural forces, diversion from white-collar crimes to street crimes, and racial and ethnic stereotyping. All these effects play a role in shaping our society because an important source (new media) of people’s beliefs is not always accurate; therefore people are left jumping to conclusions. The reason it is so important to understand the truth behind these myths is because it gives society a better understanding of what is really going on, an unbiased perspective, and a better outlook on the criminal justice

Each and every precinct reports all the various crimes that are known to the police. There are two parts to the UCR. Part 1 (which is the most serious to the FBI) includes crimes such as: criminal homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Part 2 includes crimes of: simple assaults, forgery and counterfeiting, fraud, embezzlement, stolen property, vandalism, weapons, prostitution and commercialized vice, sex offenses, drug abuse, gambling, offenses against the family and children, driving under the influence, liquor laws, disorderly conduct, vagrancy, suspensions, curfew and loitering laws, runaways and other offenses having to do with state/local laws as well as traffic offenses. The second source began in the early 1970s, which is known as, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The NCVS gathers the missing information that is not obtained from the UCR. The type of information that is gathered contains the context of the crime, “such as the time of day and physical setting in which it occurs, and the characteristics of crime victims, including their gender, race, income,