Criminal Rates in Different Areas (Book Report Sample)

Criminal Rates in Different Areas
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Criminal Rates in Different Areas
Crime rates are different in different areas owing to the fact that the places are not similar in terms of endowment of opportunities and resistivity to crime. For a crime to be committed in any area there must be three main precursors, which include an offender with a motive, an available chance to act illegally and also the absence of a capable person to prevent the crime from occurring. In such instance, crime is due to happen, and the degree of the three precursors differs from place to place. Motivations to commit crimes rarely differ, and they remain fairly constant over time (Walmsley, Boskovic & Pigram, 1981). Opportunities to create time advance on a daily basis where developments in communication technologies and computing have been the leading factors for the same. As a neutral ground, the computer security industry has also been growing and hence creating the electronic capable guardians. This report illustrates how different areas have been facing crime, and how they have been trying to solve the crimes within their own capabilities and resource endowment. The area under survey is Australia, which faces different crime rates in different parts. While it is said that the Northern Territory has more crime than the Western area, there are more crimes for property- related offences in the Western than in the Northern part. In the Northern region, there are more violent crimes when compared to the Western area (Barclay, 2007).
For the purpose of the reporting of the research, Australia has been divided into six regions, in which crime is likely to happen. They include New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Year Book Australia. Statistics from the National Crime Board are different in different territories and states, but there is no single state that has the highest rate of crime for all offense groups. For robbery offences, New South Wales has been reported to have the highest records. The Northern territory is leading in murder and assault and property crimes are prevalent in Western Australia. In contrast, rates of crime in Queensland, Victoria, Australian Capital and Tasmania have been reported to be below the national rates for most of these categories of the crime offences (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1997).
Reasons for the differences in the types of crimes and levels are several. This may be due to the following circumstances:
Urbanization
Larger cities tend to encourage a high prevalence of crime. Those states that have a larger proportion of urban centers have higher crime rates when compared to those states that have a smaller proportion of the urban areas.
Demographic profiles
In the states that young people are more proportionally, crimes tend to be higher when compared to areas where young people are not many. It is ascertained that young people are the most notorious in crime participation, and this can be attributed to the opportunities they get to commit these crimes and the high intelligence rates possessed by these people. The young people are also known to be trendy in technology, and they are innovative. Therefore, when there are fewer opportunities, they may not be able to grab all of them, and most of them may result to crime as a way of survival. Violent offenses peak at approximately the age of around 18 years, and after the age of 21, the rate of crime tends to fall. The reason for this is because at this age, these people are not mature and tend to take many risks. However, as they grow, they realize that such life is dangerous and most of them pull out.
Level of policing activity
Those states that have high policing activities tend to face lower crime opportunities since they do not give the criminals enough chances to participate in crimes without going unnoticed. However, it has been found that crimes committed in such areas are dangerous and more violent. This can be explained by the fact that the criminals may be ready to face the law enforcers and use armed weapons for the same purpose. New South Wales is the state with the highest rate of crimes, and it has a very high level of policing activities, which include police patrols. Community policing in the state is also very high, and this is where the community also takes the initiative to guard themselves against the criminals. For the criminals to survive, they have adopted more dangerous means to commit crime, and hence, higher violent crimes.
Proportions of reported crimes
Different states have different proportions of people reporting crimes. Most of the crimes committed go unreported, especially in areas which people do not have trust in the police force. The reactions of the community, the government and also the media also affect this, and, in the long run, it shapes the trends in crime. For example, when the media reports that there are high profile crimes being committed, it may create the perception that crime is out of control, and people may find it useless to report, as they perceive that nothing will be done on such. The number of reported crimes helps the police with working on the records, and hence, people are encouraged to report crimes whenever they face them (Walker & Henderson, 1991).
Commission of crimes in different areas is done because of various factors that may cause an increase of crime trends in the area. Causes of crimes in Australia include:
Involvement in drug abuse
When the young people involve themselves in drug abuse, they lose control of themselves and they may feel being violent. This may prompt them to participate in violent crimes when they are on drugs because they have a false illusion of courage and strength caused by the drugs (Eck).
Reluctance of the law enforcers
In some parts of Australia, the law enforcers have not been as active as they may seem, and this has led to the high prevalence of crime. At times the law enforcers collude with the criminals, and this is dangerous because the criminals ma...