Crime Myths

Essay by lambousUniversity, Bachelor'sB-, May 2004

download word file, 8 pages 3.0

Downloaded 222 times

Crime myths have always affected every day life for all in our society. Most of us do not realise this. This report will go on to explain the functions and characterizations of these myths in great detail. You will learn about how crime myths are created, who creates them and how they actually affect us. Different crime myths are contrasted and compared within the report with examples given.

There are many different ways in which crime is defined. Crime's definition can vary according to a person's cultural background whether it involves race or religion or many other factors of one's experience within the society that they live in. Generally crime occurs when the set of rules known as laws in Australian society are broken. Different cultures and societies impose their own rules. Each of these cultures and societies has their own way of punishing anyone who does not comply with the laws they have set.

(Goldsmith, Israel, Daly, 2003)

Crime trends seem to vary over various points of time according to much statistical research. Around the period of time between the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries drunkenness and gambling were major crime concerns. Nowadays cyber crime and international drug trafficking are concerns that were non-existent in the past.

However this does not apply to all forms of crime, as some concerns in the past are still present today. The level of these crimes and to the amount and extent that they occur may have changed. The following example comes from research based on crime in Australia and a comparison between offence against person and offence against property. It alerts us to the number of charges against persons arrested or summonsed in these cases. In 1890 for every 1000 of the population 5.43 offences were committed against person. 5.39 per 1000...