U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

SYSTEMATIC SOCIO-SPATIAL VARIATIONS IN PERCEPTIONS OF CRIME LOCATION AND SEVERITY

NCJ Number
40770
Author(s)
G F PYLE
Date Published
1976
Length
37 pages
Annotation
THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO ANALYZE A GEOGRAPHIC CRIME AND PUBLIC ATTITUDE SURVEY OF AKRON, OHIO TO DETERMINE SPATIAL VARIATIONS IN PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF CRIME LOCATIONS AND SEVERITY.
Abstract
A BASIC HYPOTHESIS OF THIS STUDY IS THAT PUBLIC REACTIONS TO INCREASED AWARENESS OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR TEND TO EXHIBIT DEFINITE GEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS CONTROLLED BY SUCH INDICATORS AS THE DISTRIBUTION OF CRIMES, SOCIOECONOMIC ATTAINMENT LEVELS OF VARIOUS INDIVIDUALS, DIFFERENCES IN SUBURBAN AND URBAN LIFESTYLES, AND INDIVIDUAL INTERPRETATIONS OF CRIME-RELATED INFORMATION FLOWING FROM THE NEWS MEDIA. THE ORIGINAL DATA WERE ANALYZED USING A MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALING APPROACH WITH THE GEOGRAPHY AND THE POPULATION REDUCED TO DEMOGRAPHIC COMPONENTS. STATISTICAL CORRELATION CHARTS AND DEMOGRAPHIC MAPS ARE INCLUDED....MSP