likely that you will be arrested for a crime. While the crime rate goes up as the per-
son’s socioeconomic status goes down, this may be caused less by economic depriva-
tion—people stealing because they are hungry or don’t have enough money to pay
their rent—and more because their crimes are more visible and their “profile” is more
likely to fit a criminal profile. When the poor rob the rich, it makes the papers; when
the rich rob the poor, it’s often called “business.”
Equally, the poorer you are, the more likely you are to be the victim of crime.
The wealthy are more insulated in their neighborhoods, better served by the police,
and more likely to press charges in assaults.
The Criminal Justice System
“In the criminal justice system, there are two separate but equally important groups:
the police who investigate crimes and the district attorneys who prosecute the offend-
ers. These are their stories.” So says the narrator at the beginning of each episode of
Law and Order,the most successful crime series in television history.
It’s mostly right. The criminal justice system is a complex of institutions that
includes the police and the courts, a wide range of prosecuting and defense lawyers,
and also the prison system.
Police
The number of police officers in the United States has roughly doubled over past
30 years. In 2005, there were nearly 582,000 full-time law enforcement employees
in the United States, or about three for every 1,000 people (Crime in the United States,
2005; U.S. Department of Justice, 2005). This is more than most countries: France
has 2.06, Japan 1.81, and Canada 1.73.
But police officers actually spend only about 20 percent of their time
in crime-fighting activity. A surprising amount of their daily routine
involves completing departmental paperwork: arrest and accident
reports, patrol activity reports, and judicial statements. Their “on time”
mostly involves routine public order activity and communicating
information about risk control to other institutions in society (insurance
companies, public health workers, social welfare agencies, and schools).
Today the police have become “knowledge workers” as much as they are
“crime fighters” (Ericson and Haggerty, 1997): They offer tips and tech-
niques, such as “stay in well-lighted areas,” but in the end you are respon-
sible for your own safety.
The police have a split image. To some people, seeing a police
officer on the street makes them feel safe and secure, as if no harm will
come to them. To others, seeing that same police officer is a terrible threat,
and they might feel that they are in danger of being arrested or killed simply for being
there. Some people see the police as protection, others see them as an occupying army.
The police understand this dichotomy. In many cities, like Los Angeles, their
motto is “to protect and to serve”—they want people to feel safe, and they want to
be of service to those who feel threatened. The most important trends in police forces
across the country have been to embed the police within the communities they serve;
to encourage more minority police, especially in minority areas; and also to train new
groups of female officers, especially to respond to complaints about domestic violence.
Since the 1990s, the number of female and minority police officers has increased.
THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM 193Americans say they feel safer than almost
anyone in the world: 82 percent report that
they feel safe walking after dark, second
only to Sweden. Seventy-eight percent feel
that they are not at risk or only slightly at
risk for burglary, compared to 58 percent in
the United Kingdom and 43 percent in
France (U.N. International Crime Victim
Survey, 2001).Didyouknow