Crime: Fact and Fiction, Rhetoric and Reality

Abstract

If criminology is the science of crime, then we might start this book by asking: Why study crime? What is so important or specific about crime that makes it necessary to have a distinct and specialized field of study devoted to it? The popular answer, found in most criminology textbooks, that ‘crime is a major social problem’ masks the enormous variations in the levels of fear of crime and concern about crime among the general population. Members of any society are not equally affected by, or equally concerned about, crime. To some, crime remains largely an abstract notion, something they hear or read about, something they see in movies or watch on their television screens. For them, crime is nothing but a means of distraction that has no impact and no bearing upon their daily routine. To others, crime is a fact of life, something they constantly have to face and to put up with and that largely affects their day-to-day activities.

Perhaps our worst crime is our ignorance about crime; our easy satisfaction with headlines and the accounts of lurid cases; and our smug assumption that it is all a matter of some tough bad guys whom the tough good guys will soon capture.

Karl Menninger (1966:3)

The Crime of Punishment

Crime myths have numerous effects on our perceptions; we may not even be conscious that they are at work. Myths tend to organize our views of crime, criminals, and the proper operation of the criminal justice system. They provide us with a conceptual framework from which to identify certain social issues as crime-related, develop our personal opinions on issues of justice, and apply ready-made solutions to social problems. The organization of views through crime myths contributes to the cataloging of crime issues into artificial distinctions between criminals, victims, crime fighters, and viable social responses to crime.

Victor E. Kappeler et al. (1993:3)

The Mythology of Crime and Criminal Justice