It is generally accepted that a number of demographic characteristics of populations can be used as predictors of the prevalence of various types of crime in those particular populations. Some of these characteristics have this predictive power because they are caused by crime or are caused by the same things as cause or impede crime, or because they are contributing causes of crime or are crime reducing factors (or both).
I have chosen to compare the crime of forcible rape rate in the cities of Los Angeles, California and Susanville, California. I chose these two cities because I have had the opportunity to live in both of them for extended periods of time. Even though these two cities are in the same state, they are very different places. Los Angeles is a large city with a population of 3,694,820, whereas Susanville is a small rural town in the mountains, with a population of 13,163.(UCR,
List of criminal gangs in Los Angeles, California
Leaving Los Angeles
The famous "black and white" LAPD police cruiser2007) With Los Angeles' population expanding largely every year with a diversity of people and cultures, the crime rate is bound to rise. Susanville's population has remained steady for the past seven years, but is divided mostly into two groups of people, peace officers and their families, and the families of the inmates in the three prisons. With Los Angeles being so large people can blend in to the environment, but in Susanville, you can't hide. Since it is a small town the city police know all the people that commit the crimes, because it is always the same ones repeating the wrong doing.
In the year 2002, Los Angeles had 1226 reported forcible rapes, in the same year Susanville had eight reported forcible rapes. Over the next five years each city saw a decline in reported rapes, and then a quick rise. Susanville's reported...