Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 6, 1993 TAG: 9312060075
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Yet the paradox is anything but contradictory to many law enforcement officials and criminologists.
"The small reported declines may be positive, but I doubt most Americans will draw much comfort from them, because the levels of violent crime and drug trafficking remain so staggering," FBI Director Louis J. Freeh said.
The latest statistics show that serious crime reported to police during the first half of 1993 dropped 5 percent from the same period in 1992, including a 3 percent decline in violent offenses.
Ronald K. Noble, assistant treasury secretary for enforcement, said his first reaction to the crime figures is that they can't be right.
"But even if they are, it doesn't matter because the figures in no way reflect the anger the American people feel about crime, particularly violent crime," he said.
The declines are not new. Last month, as the Senate ratcheted up the crime bill to make it the toughest and most sweeping measure since the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that crimes against U.S. residents and households had sunk to a 20-year low last year.
Despite the declines, criminologists and other experts contend that public concern is mounting because of the randomness of violence, its drastic consequences and the increasing role played by very young offenders.
The news media are said to feed the alarm, particularly on local television programs, where bloody crime incidents have replaced highway carnage at the top of the news.
"Two things have happened to make people more fearful," said Gerald M. Caplan, dean of the McGeorge Law School in Sacramento, Calif. "First, there is no longer the widespread belief that police and courts can protect you. This makes people more frightened and gives crime sort of the character of cancer. It can happen any time and no one can protect you.
"The second thing is that the character of crime has changed," said Caplan, who headed the National Institute of Justice in Washington and served as general counsel of the District of Columbia police before teaching law. "Crime is teen-age, it's impulsive, it's irrational. Doing injury is the purpose . . . It's like getting hit by lightning."
by CNB