Taking the Pulse: perceptions of crime trends and community safety and support for crime control methods in the Canadian Prairies

Abstract

The present study analyzed crime survey data extracted from the 2012 Saskatchewan Taking the Pulse survey on a sample of 1,700 adult Saskatchewan residents. The focus was on examining perceptions of crime trends, perceived effectiveness of various methods for controlling crime, and their sociodemographic correlates. The majority of survey respondents perceived crime in general to be on the rise (37%) or to have not changed at all (48%) over the last three years. Individuals who perceived crime to have decreased were significantly more likely to support alternatives to punishment as effective methods for reducing crime, while individuals who perceived crime to be on the rise were twice as likely to support the use of punitive methods. Perceptions of community safety were unrelated to preference for one crime reduction method over another. Education level was inversely related to crime trend perceptions (r = -.14) and preference for punitive methods to reduce crime (r = -.20). Finally, the results of logistic regression indicated higher levels of education, higher income, and perceptions of crime decreasing were all uniquely associated with a preference for alternatives to punishment in reducing crime. In these analyses, younger age was predictive of a preference for alternatives in reducing youth crime, while urban residential setting was associated with a preference for alternatives to punishment in reducing crime in general.

When crises collide—Policing a pandemic during social unrest

“…The perception of police legitimacy scale yielded an internal consistency reliability score of .815. of concern over the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (M = 13.85; range = 3-20). Perceptions of police legitimacy had low (r ≤ .10) to moderate (r ~ .30) (Cohen, 2013;McPhail et al, 2017) correlations with participants' concern over the spread of COVID-19 (r = .336), perceived treatment by the police (r = .218), race/ ethnicity (r = .172), gender (r = .071), and marital status (r = -.116). Race and perceived treatment by the police were strongly correlated (r = .362).…”

Crime, Offenders, and Victims

“…Skogan (2011, p. 102) cites the National Reassurance Policing Program, which expresses how this kind of mismatch in trends of actual and perceived crime can be of serious concern for the police, as they ultimately rely on public support for funding and legitimacy. Notably, these discrepancies in trends may be particularly prominent within rural communities as illustrated in recent research, such as (McPhail et al 2017).…”

“…The most fearful are not necessarily the most victimized; often the reverse is true (Moore and Trojanowicz 1988). For example, McPhail et al (2017) found that while official crime rates had been declining in Canada during the previous two decades, residents of the province of Saskatchewan commonly perceived that crime levels were either stagnant or rising. Skogan (2011, p. 102) cites the National Reassurance Policing Program, which expresses how this kind of mismatch in trends of actual and perceived crime can be of serious concern for the police, as they ultimately rely on public support for funding and legitimacy.…”

Racial animus and its association with punitive sentencing and crime types: Do Australian community attitudes reflect the United States’?

“…Further, the United States is known for its “zero tolerance” policies (Sharkey, 2018), high rates of police–civilian killings (Karabel, 2015), and increased use of “life without parole sentences” (Garland, 2020). The United States is also the only major Western democracy that retains the death penalty—considered to be the most extreme form of judicial punitiveness for crime—with over a dozen U.S. states still carrying out executions (McPhail et al, 2017).…”