Comparing perceptions of Crime, Offenders and Victims toA the Statistics of Crime

Description: In Canada, our society has common beliefs or perceptions about crime, offenders
and victims. Five common perceptions about crime are: both adult crime and youth crime is
dramatically increasing, the crimes committed are more violent and more serious, crimes are.
being committed by youth at a younger age than ever before, women are committing more
violent crimes than ever before, and the punishments received today are not severe enough. A
result of these beliefs could cause more fear within our society. These common beliefs may also
determine how society reacts and responds to crime, offenders and victims.

Task: Get into groups of a maximum of four in a group. In a researched essay fonnat, write a
four to five page paper on comparing five perceptions of a chosen crime, a chosen offender, or a
chosen victim. You can use some of the examples of perceptions above or come up with some
of your own group’s perceptions. You and your group will then compare these perceptions to
the actual trends and patterns of the specific crime, offender or victim. Please look at least three
formal records of crime such as Uniform Crime Reports, Victimization Surveys and Self-report
surveys. Your research will either prove or disprove the perceptions of crime, offenders and
victims. Your paper must be typed (12 font), double spaced and you must have a three point title
page. A.P.A. format is required for this assignment along with an A.P.A. reference page.

0 Your introduction should include a lead in to your paper. You should be identifying the
common perceptions. Do not use your opinion in this paper; it should be based upon
factual information.

0 In the next portion, you should have at least five paragraphs in which include the
perceptions along with the actual statistical comparisons. Give examples where
appropriate in order to emphasize your point. Feel free to you other references from
other sources and make sure these are included on your reference page. Do not over use
direct quotes from the references.

0 Finally, you will conclude your paper in one paragraph. You will sum up your paper and
re-emphasize whether the perceptions of youth crime is correct or not.

This paper is due: . Please refer to the course outline for information
on late penalties on this paper. For assistance on the cover page, refer to Angel.
These headings must be included in your paper:

1. Introduction – introduce your paper, what it contains and what are the important aspects
of the topic.

2. gldentifl your chosen crime, offender or victim) – you should use five subheadings
(and five paragraphs) that identify the five perceptions that you and your group have
come up with. In each paragraph you will compare the perception of the crime, the
offender or the victim with the actual trends of crime. You are not limited to one
paragraph in each subheading and you may use different paragraphs in this segment of
your paper.

3. Summarize you paper. Sum up the important aspects of your paper.