Crime Trends and Patterns

(Part 1)

The Department of Justice publishes the crime data annually in «Crime in the United States». Along with the basic national crime statistics, this publication offers the study of consistent crime trends and patterns – geographic, race, age, guns, gender, career criminals.

Place and crime. Urban areas have consistently higher rates of crime than rural or suburban areas. In addition, crime data also show higher rates of crime in warmer summer months than at any other time of year.

Class and crime. The general assumption that the poorest citizens are most likely to commit serious crimes is borne out by official crime statistics. The highest crime rates in the United States are consistently recorded in low-income, urban neighborhoods.

It may seem logical that those who lack a legal opportunity to gain the consumer goods and services would turn to illegal methods to do so. But, logic aside, many criminologists are skeptical of such an obvious class-crime relationship. After all, poverty does not cause crime; the majority of residents in low-income neighborhoods are law abiding. Furthermore, higher-income citizens are also involved in all sorts of criminal activities and are most likely to commit white-collar crimes.

There is the theory that high crime rates in low-income communities are at least partly the result of a greater willingness of police to arrest poor citizens and the court system to convict them.

8. Определите тематику текста «А», выбрав из предложенных вариантов 3 правильных, расположите их в последовательном порядке и переведите их.

This text …

· identifies two social process theories of crime.

· lists consistent crime trends and patterns.

· explains the assumption on which choice theories are based.

· argues against official crime statistics concerning class and crime trend.

· describes geographic crime pattern.

· explores the causes of crime.

Перепишите вопросы к тексту А и письменно ответьте на них.

1. What connections between crime and place can you detect in Russia?

2. What arguments speak, at least partly, against crime-class relationship?

10. Письменно переведите выделенные абзацы текста «А».

ЗАДАНИЯ К ТЕКСТУ«B».