The Accuracy of Public Beliefs about Crime
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2554900 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mark Warr (Washington State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1980 |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 456 |
| Publication date | 1980-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Forces (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0037-7732 • E-ISSN: 1534-7605 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2578031 |
| OpenAlex | W4251572247 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
Studies of public beliefs about crime often assert that there is a marked discrepancy between public beliefs about crime and objective conditions, a discrepancy at least partially attributable to media coverage of crime. Data from four independent sample surveys of the adult residents of a major Southwestern metropolitan area indicate that any general statement about the accuracy of public beliefs about crime may be premature. Respondents were asked to estimate the number of offenses reported to the police for each of 17 offenses. The relation between the perceived incidence and the official incidence of the offenses is described by a power function, the parameters of which are highly replicable across the surveys. Although there is systematic distortion, the overall degree of accuracy is remarkable. Alternative explanations of that accuracy are examined, and an explanation based on additional evidence is proposed
Criminology · Distortion (music) · Geography · Incidence (geometry) · Metropolitan area · Political science · Sample (material) · Statement (logic) · Computer Science · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Law · Mathematics · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology
Examining the Role of Gender in the Prevalence of Campus Victimization, Perceptions of Fear and Risk of Crime, and the Use of Constrained Behaviors among College Students Attending a Large Urban University
Are Institutions of Higher Learning Safe? A Descriptive Study of Campus Safety Issues and Self‐Reported Campus Victimization among Male and Female College Students
Fear of Crime
Lay theories of delinquency
What Is the Perceived Seriousness of Crimes
Criminal Appeals Over the Last 100 Years
The Accuracy of Public Beliefs about Crime Further Evidence
Newspaper Structuring of Crime Views
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,18 |
| Citation span | 1982 - 2010 (29) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |