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Friday, July 25, 1997

Neighborhood crime fears double in 20 years, poll shows

By MICHAEL GRACZYK / Associated Press Writer

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - Almost half of the Texans surveyed in an annual poll taken by the Criminal Justice Center at Sam Houston State University say they're afraid to walk in their own neighborhoods at night.

The number of frightened people determined by the 1997 Texas Crime Poll is double the amount who expressed similar fears when researchers conducted the first such poll in 1977, figures released Thursday showed.

"Texans are considerably more concerned about crime in general today than they were 20 years ago," the study said. "When asked whether or not there was an area within a mile of their homes where they were afraid to walk at night, only 23 percent of the respondents to the first Texas Crime Poll conducted in 1977 said 'yes.'

"In 1997, this figure increased to the alarming level of 46 percent."

The findings are based on interviews during May and June with 546 Texans who were asked a number of questions about crime and criminal justice issues. The survey has an error rate of plus or minus 5 percent.

Researchers found people worry about becoming the victim of a burglary within the next year more than any other crime. Fear of auto theft is the second-highest, followed by assault, theft, robbery, murder and rape.

"People tend to be more afraid of those crimes they perceive to be most likely to affect them and Texans appear to feel more vulnerable to burglary and auto thefts than to any other crimes," Dennis Longmire, who directed the study, said.

"People, I think, are concerned about crime. We certainly inundate them with those concerns in the media. But research consistently shows the people most concerned are generally the least likely to become victims, so probably their concern is unfounded. There isn't good research to show whether it's causal or simply a reaction."

Longmire suggested increased crime coverage on television, and particularly the immediacy of television, influenced the findings of the most recent study.

"What happens today is when somebody's child is murdered in Boulder, Colo., everybody in America becomes a secondary victim because the media immediately goes to the scene," he said Thursday. "The Cunanan situation (in Miami Beach) is another good example. Americans were fearful they were going to be the victims of a spree murderer or serial murderer when in reality we weren't at very serious risk.

"But because of the instant television coverage, and because they've got cameras flying over with helicopters, everybody sits in their homes afraid when reality tells them - and if they could be rational about it - that they don't have that much to be afraid of. And that's a different kind of coverage today than what we saw 20 years ago.

"The television media has picked up on crime as a marketing phenomenon to get interest into their shows."

The survey also found Texans have more confidence in their local police than in any other component of the criminal justice system. While local police got high marks from 62 percent of those surveyed, local courts attracted just 36 percent support from those expressing "a great deal" or "a lot" of confidence. Local community probation systems, the state prison system and the criminal justice system in general each drew high ratings from only 25 percent of those surveyed.

In each case, however, the sentiment was slightly higher than when the same question was asked a year ago. Last year, local police drew 59 percent support from those having "a great deal" or "a lot" of confidence, while the local court system had 31 percent, the prison system 24 percent and the probation and criminal justice system in general each were at 22 percent.

Among other findings, the survey showed Texans worry more about computer crime than so-called hate crime based on religion, lifestyle or ethnicity.

Tops among computer crime fears was the possibility that personal confidential information could be accessed by others through computers. The next most serious concerns were children having access to pornography on the Internet and children being pursued by adults via the Internet.

Reseachers also asked about the death penalty and found 76 percent were in favor, down four percentage points from 20 years ago. However, the survey showed the death penalty would attract only 57 percent support if Texas had what researchers called "a true life sentence" that provided for the option of sentencing convicted murderers to life in prison with no possibility of parole. Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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