Compare and contrast crime “myths” and “facts”

Essay title: Compare and contrast crime “myths” and “facts”

There are many definitions of crime. One of the definitions is the legal definition. According to Tappan (1947) , crime is “an international violation of the criminal law committed without excuse and penalised by the state”. There is also a human rights definition of crime where anything that is done to another person in violation of the code of human rights constitutes a crime. But that is a vague and too broad of a definition of crime.

Myth is regarded as a traditional or a half-truth story told of some event or happenings. It distorts our views of crimes, criminals and the criminal justice system set by the government. Graber (1980) stated, “the public lives in a world of unreality when it comes to criminals, victims, and the criminal justice system”.

Who is involved in the myths making of crime?

We find that most of the time, the media is the main culprit in contributing and encouraging the creation of crime myths. Journalists and media stations have responsibilities to update us on the happenings domestically and internationally. They also have an obligation to the media companies to ‘sell’ stories. Stories or reports have to grab attention of viewers. The media’s objective is to obtain and retain viewers; with that the advertising rate is increased when the rate of viewers goes through the roof as well. To achieve that, they use methods such as dramatising and sensationalising of stories. Most often times, journalist would choose and pick topic that is of potential to create a build in interest by public or create responses from the governments. Their opinions and reviews of situations are based on their personal opinions and sometimes bias reviews.

Crime through the mass media has become an entertainment more than just news reports. One of the latest stories on the television was how the neighbourhood of Dubbo is havoc. Crime spree, violent behaviours and looters found themselves on camera as the television presenter discussed crime rates that had heightened. The media was only trying to portray an image on the television for the public to react and the government to pay attention to. In reality, according to a few residences in that area, things in Dubbo were not what it seemed to be on the television at all.

The government plays a significant role in preventing myths. They have responsibilities to uphold the truth, sharing true facts to prevent public fear, culling crime myths, supporting and researching on crime prevention. In Australia, the Australian Institute of Criminology is established to play a role in conducting research on crime and criminology, and disseminating information to the Australian Government and public.

The irony is that the government is also a culprit for creating crime myths. The government itself controls and leads the mass media and is known to be a media entity of it’s own. It even has its very own media, publicity and marketing division. The government is able to suppress and release information when they feel necessary or want to. Take for example the news on a gunman in Canberra recently who shot himself after being intercepted by the Police Special Response and Security group. The newspapers had sketchy reports on the whole incident. The police had little to say about what had happened and only concentrated on how they were only protecting the public; describing that the young gunman killing himself as a tragedy.

The government knows it is able to get the media to focus on stories to be told and the attention of the public on social issues.

As a matter of fact, source of myths are so wide that we are not able to keep track of. This is particularly the reason that the government and media cooperates on a level where they would have selected myths, reports or incidents that they clarify or explained to the public via mass media.

Obtaining facts

A fact is normally derived from statistics and reports obtained by research, surveys and police records. The reliability of statistics, research, reports and police records are often questioned. These data are accumulated over the years by individuals and organisations that might not have proper training or standardized research methods. The reports or records might also be bias and based on individual perception or opinion.

Yet the argument is, how else can we gather data that is turned into facts? Thus, the methods of research have gone through years of improvement. The government setup Australian Institute of Criminology for the very purpose of gathering and reporting information on criminology for their knowledgebase. Law enforcement officers are trained to obtain information and prepare reports in a standardised manner. The Australian Bureau of Statistics is also part of the big scheme of things in the research, statistics, reporting and an influence of decision making of the government. Although the research methodologies are of high quality and standard; it cannot be denied that errors and misinterpretation of data still happens. This is unavoidable in the big scheme of things.

Common Myths

The society has this perception that all criminals will eventually be put in prison. This is often not true. We all know that not all crimes are reported. According to Graycar, A and Grabosky, P (2002), ‘Not all reported crimes are recorded, not all recorded crimes are investigated, not all investigated crimes are solved, not every investigated crime yields a suspect, not all suspect is apprehended, not every apprehended person is charged, not every charged person is brought before the courts, not every person brought before the courts is convicted, and not every convicted person is imprisoned’.

Another one of the most common myth is in regards to the arrest of crime related to drug ring crackdowns is that people who sell drugs are normally arrested. The facts according to the publication ‘Crime & Justice in Australia’ published by the NSW Department of Corrective services “80% of people arrested for drug related matters are classified by the courts as ‘consumers’ and not suppliers of drugs” pg 3.

There is this recent myth that crime is ever increasing and the only way to curb the problem is to increase the number of police in the state. The police force is like any other organisations. They need to prove to the people and the government that they need more funding and more staff. To do that, they will have to arguments and prove that the need exist and without it, people are not safe on the streets or at home as crime is on the wide spread. It is amazing how reports of crimes are low when elections are coming up and high when the budget is up for an allocation for the government sector.

The white collar crimes

The myths about how a criminal should look; and people with day jobs and dress up in suits do not commit crime doesn’t stand. Not all criminals look rugged, sluggish, dirty, and sick. Stereotyping the way criminal look and behave is not possible anymore. As technology is taking over the future, crime is also changing. Crime is no longer being committed just by youth, homeless, drug and alcohol influenced people and immoral people. White collar criminals are becoming more evident these days and they hurt people. Such crimes are committed ‘intelligently’ leaving obvious evidence behind is becoming common. Yet white collar crimes abide by the same principles in criminal law. They are as violent as rape, murder, burglaries, robbing, theft and etc. People lose their jobs; they lose their identities, families break up, they cause emotional and psychological traumas and etc.

The few common white collar crimes we normally hear about are tax evasion, computer and internet fraud, bribery, telemarketing fraud, embezzlement, bankruptcy fraud and insurance claiming fraud. Regulatory agencies cannot prevent white collar crimes and these crimes are normally complicated and have no eyewitnesses. The government has been equipping their law enforcers and employing new personnel with the skills needed in policing and cracking down these white collar crimes. Either way, all the government needs are these resources to apprehend or put a stop to white collar crimes as we could say that ‘there are no smart crimes or intelligent criminals’.

Conclusion

We cannot stop crime myths from surfacing into our everyday lives. But we can choose to believe, not believe, to react or not react to crime myths surrounding us. As much as the government release and holds information from the public on crime justice, they are also trying to curb myths for the public’s sake by setting up research agencies, councils and launch campaigns to get our facts right. As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once quoted this; ‘Crime is common. Logic is rare.’

In the book titled ‘Myth that causes crime’ Harold E pepinsky and Paul Jesilow mentioned that “Police cannot take care of crime. Crime can be taken care only if we move beyond myth”. This is particularly true if we want to curb the widespread of myth that could affect the social psychology of our community.



References

O’Toole, S., 2005, Crime & justice in Australia : the myths- the facts, Eastwood, N.S.W. : NSW Dept. of Corrective Services.

Hall Williams, J. E., 1969, Crime--myths and reality: four lectures given at an I.S.T.D. autumn weekend conference held at Eastbourne, 8th to 10th November 1968 [by] J. E. Hall Williams [and others], London, Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency.

Rylands, L. G., 1984, Crime, its causes and remedy, New York : Garland Pub.

Howitt, D., 1998, Crime, the media, and the law, Chichester [England] ; New York : Wiley series in the psychology of crime, policing, and law.

Goldsmith, A., Israel, M. and Daly, K., 2006. Crime and Justice : A Guide to Criminology (3rd edition). Sydney: Law Book Company

Gaycar, A. and Grabosky, P., 2002, “Trends in Australian Crime and Criminal Justice”, in A. Graycar and P. Grabosky (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Australian Criminology. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, pp 9-13


Kappeler, V., Blumberg, M. and Potter, G., 1993, The Mytholody and Crime and Criminal Justice, Chapter 1, “The Social Construction of Crime Myths”, pp 1-20. Prospect Heights, IL : Waveland Press.

Cowdery, N., 2001, Getting justice wrong : myths, media and crime, Crows Nest, NSW : Allen & Unwin


Senator the Hon Amanda Vanstone, 25-27 February 1998, Paper presented at the conference Partnerships in Crime Prevention, convened jointly by the Australian Institute of Criminology and the National Campaign Against Violence and Crime and held in Hobart.