Criminology Research Council grant ; (16/80)
A small random population survey was conducted in Western Australia during 1981 in order to explore community attitudes to crime, particularly the community perception of the seriousness of behaviour and the influence of information (if any) about crime on these attitudes. Two data gathering excursions were involved by self-report mail out in January and November 1981: 279 effective responses were analysed from the first excursion and 263 from the second-representativeness was somewhat restricted in view of sample bias, i.e., more females and higher education respondents. The first survey was principally exploratory and the results enabled some general comparison with other countries where the same survey instrument had been employed and the results suggested that community attitudes in Western Australia were more severe than other Western countries.
It was speculated that this could contribute in part to Western Australia's high imprisonment rate. The second survey was designed specifically to test for the effect of information on attitudes to crime and information about crime was supplied to some respondents and not others and analysed to determine differences. The results of this research were equivocal and a direct relationship between information and attitudes to the seriousness of crime cast doubt on previous empirical findings. Of general interest was the degree to which sex and age affected the seriousness of which crimes were regarded. Females and, surprisingly, young people were more often identified with a preference for severe sanctions.
In the follow-up survey attitudes to serious crimes such as rape, murder and so on were significantly influenced by the factors sex, information level and passage of time.
As a consequence of this research a number of conclusions can be drawn:
- Attitudes to the amount and type of punishment applicable to criminal behaviour varies a great deal. The consensus normally associated with assessments of the harm of criminal acts is more fragile than assumed even with serious crime.
- Attitudes to crime do appear to be potentially influenced by information about crime which further implicates the role of the media as an agent of moral indignation.
- Law enforcement relies heavily on the attitudes of the community and these attitudes bear importantly on the success of crime control to a greater degree than previously contemplated.
- Public attitudes appear most resistant to change or reform where information accuracy is very low or non-existent. Efforts need to be directed at progressively increasing public information about crime and acceptability of difference forms of punishment. At present public attitudes appear restricted and confined to the expensive option of imprisonment.
- By and large public attitudes are politically non-partisan but with an important difference, e.g., Labor voters appear more severe than Liberal voters. In some crime categories (particularly the white collar and victimless crime categories) attitudes are highly polarised. Generally, the results indicate the community's attitudes to crime could tolerate the decriminalisation of a wide range of victimless crimes (abortion, homosexuality, drug use) provided more serious crimes were seen to be dealt with more harshly.