What are the people's perceptions of crime in Bangor?

Research question:

What are the people's perceptions of crime in Bangor?

The aim of the research:

The research is a two folded objective. It endeavors to investigate two dimensions of crime perception in Bangor city, which aims at finding out how people rate crime and how do they feel it in Bangor. For this purpose, it introduces a number of questions each emphasizing the most certain type of crime which subsequently discovering the public perception of such types of crime. In addition, it checks whether the people see crime as a serious issue or minimum.

The kinds of crimes that the research aims to deal with are as following:

Vandalism/ graffiti

Theft

Burglary

Shoplifting

Pick pocketing

Violence

Kidnapping

Arson = set fire

Rape

Murder

Drug related crimes

Relevance of the Topic:

Crime perception is a crucial matter in our days. Undoubtedly, there is a strong relation between people's daily life and perception of crime. When people are aware about crime, it can positively reflect on their behavior and activity, avoiding the possibility of victimization. In some cases, fear of crime can be a source of social disorder when people boycott some activity fearing to be victimized. This is true when the public perception does not reflect the reality. The opposite may be true when authorities intentionally conceal crime figures from the public for political reasons. The public should be aware of what reality of crime commitment is.

The population:

The population comprises local residents of Bangor that have lived at least five years in the city. They are adult people, beyond 20, and are from different social classes, students, teachers, university lecturers, shop owners, housewives, workers, people in the street and pubs, and public offices.

Place of conducting the research

The research is being conducted in different places around Bangor city.

Abstract

The concern about crime perception has recently become increasingly a matter of importance by relevant authorities, and fear of crime raised a huge concern among public. Feeling of safety is firmly related to the public perception of crime. As there are many factors influence the crime perception in addition to what the reality is, the negative feeling may have undesired reflection on the daily life of people, especially the vulnerable ones. The study has raised a concern of what the reality of crime perception in Bangor city is. Two major dimensional perception of crime has been expressed by a number of questions to discover what the reality of people's perception of crime is, i.e. how do people rate seriousness of crime and how they feel it. The study introduces different types of trouble making factors as a study element to reveal the secret behind fear of crime in the city, identifying the main source of feeling unsafe by the people. In addition, it explicitly states the status qou of crime perception of the people of Bangor city. Furthermore, it shed lights on some factors that may, sometimes, change the public perception. Finally, it sums up the factors behind the public perception and the reality of crime commitment.

Literature Review

What is Crime?

There is a wide consensus about the definition of crime which refers to an act of performance or failure to perform something that breaks the criminal law and punishment is imposed by the state. Criminal law is a group of rules which represent people's norms set by the state as its accountability of public, and many institutions such as police and court are designed to maintain this law. Rymond (2006).

The actions that criminal law is set to protect as a penalty, can be extended from a minimum effect violations such as exceeding speed limit of driving to a far more serious one like murder.

Causation of Crime (Crime and Deviance)

Deviance is a divergence from those standards that are accepted by a given group of people. The extent of which deviance concept covers can take a very broad range. It may include the violation of the social norms of all kinds. Giddens (1997:173)

Theories of Crime and Deviance

Biological Theories

Many theories are distinguished to interpret the causation of crime. Caeser Lombroso, the Italian criminologist, was among the first ones who endeavored to explain the reason behind committing crime. His belief was represented by a relation between the shape of skull and criminal types. Although he admitted that external factors such as social learning and development have their role in criminal behavior, but his main focus was on the biological factor. This belief was increasingly refused, but still other peoples came with the similar point of view. (Giddens, 1997:175).

For some time the biological theory has become less affect once the sociological sciences has developed. Yet with the recent technology advancement in late 21st century, a theory came forward with the belief that there may be specific genes responsible for transmission of criminal behavior from parents through the generations. The theory is less effective than earlier one, i.e. the vital role is given to the sociological factors which interact with biological one. Rymond (2006).

Psychological Theories

Three theories are counted for the explanation of crime and deviance; Moral Development Theory: Believers in this theory states that anyone in order to have a moral reading aptitude, he/she should accompany by a group of development stages. Any lack or incompletion of these stages by any reason, will gives rise to the imperfection in the person's capacity to recognize what is right from what is wrong. Subsequently the judgment will turn to be inappropriate and results in an unsocial behavior. While the Social Learning Theory interpretation is that people learn moral codes through their interaction and socializing with other people. The theory emphasis on that the reaction of elder people to what younger ones do from obeying rules or breaking them is essential for what the young people acquire and learn as a social moral. Inequality among children within a family may lead to aberrant behavior. Personality Theory supposes that people develops certain tendencies through early socialization, such as impulsiveness, extrovert, introvert etc. Rymond (2006).

Sociological theories

It seems that sociological theories have the most compelling and plausible interpretation for crime causation. This is because social constituents of society are factors for crime, having thoroughly focused on the link between appliance and deviance in different situations (Giddens, 1997:176).

Strain Theory

The owner of this theory is Gabriel Trade who believes that environment as asocial factor is behind the crime causation. Agnew (2002). He never denies the role of biological and psychological factors, but he mainly asserts on the sociological factors. Agnew (2002) furthermore argues that deviance stems from the strain which the person is experiencing. Different types of strain and stress can cause different type of deviance or criminal behavior. The committer reduces the strain by performing such behaviors. For example, theft may be as a result of financial problem, escape from home because of bad treatment, using drug for getting better etc. He, further emphases that strain may result from failure to achieve three related goals: money, status/respect, and—for adolescents—autonomy from adults.

Anomie Theory

The owner of this theory is Emile Durkhiem, who believes that the crime is an outcome of the instable social order. The defective and shortage in functioning of social regulations and gives rise to the feeling by some people to be depressed and feel abandoned; subsequently they no longer think as everyone do, and deviate from the norms of society. Maguire, (2007:11) .

Control Theory

This theory unlike the aforementioned ones, tries to find out why do people do not commit crime. The theorists see that there are controls, limitations, rules, and sanctions that intercept people from their disengagement in crime. These controls can be:

Direct Controls: Peoples think they are in control and monitored by family members, school staff, employers, etc. Internal Control: Some times people may expose to the possibility of engagement in crime, but they refrain from committing it. This is because they are in a high control inside. Agnew (2002).

Labeling Theory:

This theory was increasingly popular in 1960s, but when some researches conducted and proved that the beliefs that the theory holds do not works, even other researches proved otherwise.

The theory says: the peoples who act as labelers, police, teachers, parents, employers etc. have role in reinforcing the possibility of crime engagement by some people who commit some kind of non conformities with the social norms. When a juvenile steal a thing or a pupil do something wrong, if they were been labeled with criminals, other people will treat them as criminals too and this will amplify the potentiality of engaging in other crime acts. (Giddens, 1997:178).

Types of Crime

Pursuant to criminal law defined above, crime involves any non conformity or violation that set within the frame of social norm of a given society. As aforesaid it may include a small break of that law with a minimum impact to a very large impact like a mass murder. The following are some examples of most prominent and abundant types of crime that committees in a large scale nowadays:

Vandalism: the act of destroying or damaging something, especially public property, deliberately and for no good reason.

Graffiti: the act of writing or drawing rude, humorous, or offensive political words on a wall etc. in a public place.

Theft: the act of stealing something from a person or place.

Burglary: an act of entering a building illegally and stealing things from it.

Robbery: the act of stealing money or goods from a bank, shop/store, person, etc., especially using violence or threats.

Shoplifting: the act of stealing goods from a shop/store by deliberately leaving without paying for them. Pick pocketing: stealing money or valuable things from the victim, without the thief been noticed at the time of stealing.

Violence: the behavior which intend to hurt other people GHB/AHBM

Kidnapping: the act of taking somebody away illegally and keep them as a prisoner, especially in order to get money or something else for returning them.

Arson: the act of deliberately setting fire to something, especially a building.

Rape: the act of having sex with somebody when they do not want to, by threatening them or using violence. Murder: the act of killing somebody deliberately.

Drug related crimes: the act of using, possessing, manufacturing, or distributing illegal drugs classified as having a potential for abuse.

Hate crimes: is any offence committed against a person or property which is motivated by the offender's hatred of people because they are seen as being different like race, faith, sexual orientation, and disability.

Domestic Violence: is an act of violence that usually occurs between family members or a relationship. This type of crime includes violent behavior from one member to another such as child abuse.

Gun Crime: Gun crime can cover any crime that involves the use of a gun, including an imitation gun.

Identity theft: this is a new type of crime. The criminal is invisible, using various types of software and hacking to steal account username of bank, email, etc. and password. Then the criminal act as the original owner of the account. Humbly (2006).

Perception of Crime

As defined by the Oxford Advanced Dictionary (2006), Perception means "the way you notice things especially with senses, the ability to understand the true nature of something, and an idea, a belief or an image you have as a result of how you see or understand something".

Therefore, people's perception of crime can carry a twofold meaning; How do people notice the crime with their senses, and how do they understand or see the true nature or image of crime in a given area.

Many factors affect crime perception by people; self experiencing, media, and the incidents that are matters of discussion within the people and family members. It seems that media is the most efficacious one. People may think that some sort of crimes is concealed by the authorities, since they may create a panic with regard of certain types of violence. This is why reporting crime in media has recently become a matter of great concern Williams (1993:33).

Presently, there is huge concern about the potentiality of existence a wide gap between crime perception and its reality. News reports, researches, papers undoubtedly point out the discrepancy between crime figures and what people's perception centers around all around the world. In January 2008, Jacqui Smith, Home's Secretary told BBC that she would not feel safe walking alone in London's street after dark. According to Shaw (2004), reporting from British Crime Survey, the crime figures has gone down in England and Wales, but they are not sure if it is convincing for people. The question is why do the relevant authorities believe that people's perception may not accept what the reality is? The report, further more, highlights that either the crime figures are not what is being committed in the reality, or there may be other factors behind the fact that perception of crime is being affected by other factors such as media etc. According to Manley & Donald (2006) "Political factors, such as investment, policing and migration, as well as Social variables, such as population densities, social classes and jobs" may be among those ones that create inconsistency between fear of crime and reality.

Crime Figures and perception of crime in past surveys

According to the British Crime Survey report published in 20007/2008, the crime figures as all were as following:

The total number of all kind of crimes is 10.1 million crimes, have fallen down by 10%. Violent related crimes have fallen down by 12%.

Domestic burglary remained same as it was.

Vehicle related crime has fallen down by 11%.

Personal theft remained as before.

Vandalism has gone down by 10%.

The fear of being crime victim is down by 24% to 22%. BCS, 2007/08).

Nowadays, fear of crime has a widespread concern about media, organizations, and authorities. Huge number of researches and surveys are being conducted regularly all around the world in this regard. The tough relation between fear of crime and public's daily life made the topic being largely interested in by scholars. Public's awareness of what is going on in terms of crime commitment would definitely have a positive reflection on their activity. If they new about certain type of crime, they may take precautionary measures, and avoid being a victim of crime. Johnson (1996) argues that besides its being positive to know about fear of crime, however for certain people in the society such as elderly people and women which they are more vulnerable, cause some sort of restriction in their daily activity, losing opportunity, and their well being of life.

Is some cases the fear of crime may get worse and if the situation exacerbate, it probably results in social disorder. Skogan (1990), points out that when fear of crime become far more extreme, and public places become vulnerable and people avoid those spaces, it may lead to a steady and regular deterioration in the characters of community, which finally gives rise to a huge disorder and crime.

Methodology

The research undertook questionnaire as its method of surveying. This technique which is an interactive way with the interviewee is the best method for exploring population view points. In order to achieve a better image of what we have endeavored to know from people's perception, we decided to have a face to face interview with our population rather than resorting to prerecorded data from police offices or other databases. This is because there was neither a specific survey about crime perception in Bangor, nor getting those data from police records was easy. Even if we could have obtained the data, it might have been irrelevant, since people's perception is steadily changing as long as the reality gets up and down, i.e. there is a dynamic man environment interaction which eventually the opinions can be changed. Moreover, getting information directly from the population can give more accurate picture rather than relaying on a prerecorded data. As aforesaid, the authorities sometimes unlikely to report a real figure of crime for political reasons.

As the main question of the research is "what are the people's perceptions of crime in Bangor", we tried to design a questionnaire comprising a set of questions, in which they all together revolving around the two main target questions: how do people think about crime rate in Bangor, and how they feel it.

Structure of the questionnaire

The structure of the questions has been designed to be easy, clear, and relevant to the real situation of the city. We did not include any element that is strange or unfamiliar to the interviewees. The answers were been set to multiple choices so that the interviewees can easily answer them without feel bored dealing with open questions. And this was helpful that the interviewees were ready to answer the questions without any hesitation and no difficulty.

Population and Place

We picked our population to be adult people, aged 20 and above, and we were successful in this regard, having faced minimum objection by the respondents. Although we have explained at the very beginning that the questionnaire is based on anonymity, there were few people who objected to answer the questions. We think this is usual since the topic is very sensitive and people do afraid from the possibility that their names go to police record. The interviewees were consisted of different classes around the city; university lecturers, shop owners, students, housewives, peoples in the street and pubs, workers and teachers. Focusing on this variety of respondents is essential to achieve more representative sample, and we intentionally interviewed a nearly equal numbers of male and female, hoping to help discover gender differences with regard their perception.

The content of the questionnaire

The tool for carrying out this survey was a 16 question, some intended to identify respondents perception of a specific types of crime. Others were designed to reveal how they react to some sort of crime and what are the most available kinds of crime. The respondents have been subjected to a kind of question which can explore the reality of crime commitment in Bangor city. In addition to those questions, we offered the respondents to answer four extra questions, indicating their age, annual income, (which we put in scale to avoid the possibility of creating a critical situation for the respondent), gender, and their educational qualification. We thought that those extra questions might help us in the explanation of the results.

During conducting the questionnaire we did not confront any significant problem or worth to mention. Even though we were on a restricted time table, we managed to complete the research in due time and everything has proceeded as planned.

Analysis and Discussion

The questionnaire, which was designed to discover views and attitudes of local residents of Bangor city towards crime perception, came up with the following findings:

The majority (80%) of the respondents rated crime of all kinds in the city as a "non serious" issue, while only (15%) rated it as a "serious" issue.

Half (50%) of the respondents think that crime commitment in the last 5 years is "stable", and (15%) feel that it has "fallen down", while slightly under one third (30%) believe that it has "gone up".

Nearly all the respondents feel safe in the city, (85%) ticked for "safe" and (10%) for "very safe", while only 0.5 in ten (5%) ticked for "unsafe".

Almost all (90%) of the respondents have not been a victim of any kind of crime in the last 5 years, yet only one in ten (20%) have been exposed to some kinds of crime.

The majority (80%) of the respondents feel either "safe" or "very safe" when they walk alone in an empty road or after dark.

The believe of crime causation was vary; approximately one third (30%) of the respondents believe that it's "unsocial behavior", one in five (20%) said its about "drugs", just under one in five (17%) returned it to "poverty", while "unemployment" as same as "soft policing" was believed by (13%) of the respondents to be a reason of crime commitment. Only (3%) think that "lack of social awareness" is a cause of crime.

A slightly under half (45%) of the respondents believe that "juveniles" most commit crime, while nearly above one in three (35%) think that both adults and juveniles in the same rate do so. Only one in five (20%) consider adults most commit crime.

According to slightly under half (43%) of the respondents "Vandalism", nearly under one fifth "Violence" and "drug related crime", (19%) for each, about one in seven (16%) "Theft and burglary", are the most common types of crime committed in the city.

Three fifth (60%) of the respondents feel that it is a problem when "young people hanging around", while the rest (40%) do not feel to be a problem.

Just under one third (70%) of the respondents view that police play a role in reducing crime, while one fifth (20%) think the police has a bit role, with one tenth (10%) seeing no role of police.

Over one third (80%) of the respondents have not taken any preliminary measures to protect themselves or their family towards any kind of crime, while only (20%) have done so.

A slightly under one third (72%) feel safer if police presence or required measures is being increased, while just under one fourth (23%) feel safe if young people hanging around are being removed. In the meantime, half (50%) of the people's feeling of non safety comes from "young people hanging around", while both "media coverage" and "hearing about crime stories" are believed by equally one fourth (25% for each) of the respondent that make them feel unsafe.

"Increasing police presence", "raising social awareness", and "making punishment stronger" is equally believed by just above one in four (26% for each) to reduce the crime commitment and about one in seven (15%) viewed that "increasing CCTV or other monitoring system" would have such an impact.

Almost all (95%) think that there is a relationship between crime and punishment, while the other (5%) do not see any relationship.

Discussion

The survey, as mentioned above, was conducted to find out about perception of crime according to local residents in Bangor city. Thus, two main questions are raised; how do people perceive crime, i.e. how do they rate seriousness of crime, and how they feel it. Yet we subjected our interviewees with a questionnaire comprising 16 questions. This is because most of the questions are aimed at revealing certain part of the perception. In many cases, different questions reinforcing the findings that have been interpreted from other questions. This is why a multi dimensional perception of personal safety has been assessed in the questionnaire.

Overall, crime is not a serious issue for the people of Bangor, the majority (80%), views crime as an unserious matter. In deed, this figure reflects the reality of low crime commitment in the region. This finding can be supported by the next question which the overwhelming majority answered that they feel either safe (85%) or very safe (10%). Furthermore, victimization is another aspect can be deemed as a crucial evidence for crime commitment reality, again the majority (90%) have not been a victim of any kind of crime in the last 5 years.

However, crime figures have been stable according to (50%) of the respondents, and fallen down for (15%), while it have gone up for nearly one in three (30%), which may show a discrepancy with the very first perception. yet if we go deeper, we realize that female numbers who answered for "gone up" was as twice as male numbers. We all know that women are more vulnerable and more subjected to crime than men. This may reflect to their perception about crime.

To know exactly what the main factors behind feeling unsafe are, we intentionally designed specific questions. The majority (85%) feel safe when walking alone in an empty road and (81%) feel safe when walking after dark. The people who answered they feel unsafe (15%) and (19%) respectively in both questions, they are female. We believe that in such situations it is normal for females not to feel safe as they can be more easily victimized than others which negatively have influenced their feelings when they walk after dark or in an empty road alone.

If we look attentively to findings number 6, 7, 8, and 9 we may get to the point that there is really some sort of perception of crime revolving around violence, unsocial behavior, drugs. Connecting those answers together, we can conclude what really the perception is;

Nearly half (45%) think that juveniles and (20%) adults are the people who most commit crime. In the meantime, young people hanging around is a problem for three in five (60%) of the respondents. This means that young people, specifically juveniles are a source for some sort of crime like, violence, unsocial behavior, drugs related crime which they can be easily deceived by older people in the latter one. Another factor may be because juveniles have exploited their privilege from government which protected by law. No one of the respondents mentioned about murder, gun crime, or abduction. This means the extreme types of crime in Bangor really does not exist or is very uncommon.

Once people feel fear of being a victim of crime, they probably take some preliminary measures to protect themselves. However, only (20%) of the respondents have taken such a measures as precautionary, which is minimum. Finding number 12 confirms that young people hanging around is really an issue. Half of the respondents feel unsafe when young people hang around. Although the first part states that (72%) of the respondents would feel safe if police numbers are increased, however, this is a common sense, everybody would feel safe when hearing the name of police.

The answers point out that there is really some factors affect the reality of crime figures, i.e. make people feel unsafe. One in four (25%) of the respondents feel unsafe when they hear about crime stories as same as (25%) of the respondents who feel unsafe by the media coverage. It appears the impact of such factors to be unsubstantial.

Conclusion

The research came up with the fact that crime of almost all the kinds that have been mentioned in the research is not a serious issue in the city. The majority of the people feel safe towards the mentioned types of crime. Many factors are counted for the high safety that the city enjoys; first of all the rural nature and small size of population is one of the important one. This makes the people be stricter to the social norms than bigger cities. Purity may be regarded as another reason of why crime is in a low level in this city. Almost all the residents are either Welsh or English. There is no such an ethno diversity like bigger cities. Although there are a huge number of foreigners, yet almost all are students of university. Probably the authorities endeavored to create such a quiet and safe environment to grab more national and international students. Moreover, poor health and deprivation are among factors causing crime commitment, the absence of such factors may also have played a role in the low level of crime in the city.

There is a low level of negative crime perception among the people of the city. But obviously in both quantitatively and qualitatively is insignificant. The figure is in a low level, which does not exceed 15%. In the meantime, the serious and extreme types of crimes such as murder and abduction are uncommon in the city. There is some sort of violence, vandalism, and burglary which is very low in number. Young people in the area appears to be the main source of creating unsafe feeling especially by woman and young female which the fear is inconsiderable.

References

Agnew, Robert, (2002), Crime Causation: sociological theories of crime, Crime and Justice Journal, volume 1, Macmillan Reference. Cited at: http://law.jrank.org. (Access date 21 May 2009).

Bolling, Keith and et al, (2007/2008), British Crime Survey: England and Wales. Cited at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/crimeew0708.html. (Access date 13 May 2009).

Giddens, Antony (1997), Sociology, third edition, Polity press.

Hombly, A. S. (2006), Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, sixth edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Johnson, Holly (2005), Crime victimization in Australia: key results of the 2004 International Crime Victimization Survey, Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology.

Maguire, Mike et al (2007), The Oxford Text book of Criminology, fourth edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Manley, E. J. and Donald, N. (2006), An Investigation into the Factors Affecting Fear of Crime in a Geographical Area, ENV06 Visualization Conference, School of Computing, University of Leeds.

Redmond, W. A. (2006), Crime, Microsoft Student 2007 (DVD), Microsoft Corporation.

Shaw, Danny, (13th April 2003), Crime perception Contrasts with figures, www.bbcnews.com. (Access date 12 May 2009).

Skogan W 1990. Disorder and decline: crime and the spiral of decay in American neighborhoods. New York: The Free Press.

Williams, Paul and Dickinson, Julie (1993), Fear of Crime: Read all about it? British Journal of Criminology, Volume 33, no. 1, p 33.

Appendix

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