Victimization survey

Victimization survey

  1. What is your age?
  2. Have you ever been a victim of larceny?
  3. How old were you when the crime occurred?
  4. How old was the offender?
  5. Do you have any close relationship with the person who committed the crime?
  6. Were you present when the offense took place?
  7. Did you report the case to the police?
  8. If you did not report the matters, what made you keep it a secret?
  9. Did you report the issue to your family?
  10. What was their reaction?
  11. Did they bother to report the matter to the police?
  12. Have any of your family members been a victim of larceny?
  13. Did they report the issue to the police?
  14. In your opinion, why do you think that most people are reluctant to report cases of larceny to the police?

From the results obtained from the survey, I found out that larceny is a prevalent crime in society. It is very common in big cities where people from diverse regions live together. In most cases, the crimes happen without the presence of the victims. Additionally, sometimes it involves theft of items of small value. In most cases, victims of larceny do not report the incident to the police. In their perception, it is hard to get the items stolen back. As a result, they prefer not to waste their time and resources following the property through police investigations. Additionally, in most cases, the victims are not able to identify the offenders because the crimes happen without their presence. They prefer to keep it to themselves or share it with family and neighbors. Since most cases of larceny are not reported to the police, it has been hard to deal with this kind of crime, and it is prevalent in big towns.

From the survey, I have found out that the crimes are very close to me. Most of the respondents indicated that they are aware of such cases which have not been reported to police. This is evident that I can be a victim of larceny at any time. My valuable property can be taken by other people hence becoming a victim of the crime.

From the survey, I have found put that larceny theft crimes are underreported in society. Many people lose their valuable property to other people, but they do not report the matter to the police. This implies that police records on larceny are not reliable to determine the level of such crimes in the society (Gove et al., 456). Since most cases of theft are not reported to the police, it is not possible to use their records to determine the level of the crime. As a result, much effort is not devoted to deal with larceny crimes because it is underestimated in society. The underreporting of larceny has led to an increase in such cases in the community. Since people are not afraid of facing the law for being involved in the theft of personal property, they are encouraged to take part in such unlawful activities. This has led to an increase in such crime in significant towns (Mustaine and Richard 834).

There are various reasons which have been presented to explain why most larceny crimes are not reported to the police. One of them is that the acts happen without the presence of the victim. As a result, it is hard for the complainant to determine the suspect. Another reason is that some of the personal property items which people lose through larceny are of low value. As a result, they do not feel the pain of losing value; hence they decide not to report the matter to the police. Another reason presented by the respondents that police investigation into the issue requires a lot of process which many people find tedious (Langton et al., 10). Additionally, it was argued that police investigation takes a lot of time where in most cases, the victims do not get their property back, despite spending a lot of time and resources. This discourages many people from reporting larceny cases to the police.

The crime of theft can be explained using Reiss’ and Nye’s Theories of Internal and External Controls. This model describes the ways which can be used to regulate unlawful activities in the society. Internal controls occur when people have a sense of guilt which prevents them from engaging in deviant behaviors. For the case of larceny, the people who participate in this crime do not have an individual conscience which to control their actions (MacDonald 404). This has led to an increase in the offense in society. On the other hand, external control s like legal and social sanctions has not been effective in regulating the matter.  Many people have not been reporting larceny cases to the police, which make it hard for the law enforcement department to develop strategies for dealing with the matter. Combination of both internal and external controls should be used to reduce the cases of larceny which occur in the society.

Do you need high quality Custom Essay Writing Services?

Custom Essay writing Service