Crime and Everyday Life

Douglas D. Koski

Crime comes in various forms. For most people, the form that arouses the greatest fear is a violent, predatory attack by a stranger or someone they barely know. While such an encounter is the least common type of crime—about 10 to 12 percent of all criminal events—it is the one the public hears the most about through the mass media (Bureau of Justice Statistics 1999). Such crimes are certainly costly, however, not only in the fear they evoke but also in the emotional and financial toll they exact on victims. Thus it is only natural that when people hear the word crime , interpersonal predatory crime is what they generally think about and is precisely what they want to avoid. Predatory crime, like all crime, has at least three measurable components. The two components with which people are most familiar are the motivated offender and the victim, or the suitable ...

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