Sociology of Crime

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200990417007

This article focuses on a man named Alfred A. Ligammari Jr., 40 years old who fled the end of his trial on charges that he sexually assaulted a female relative on Thursday.  Jurors convicted him of first and second degree criminal sexual assault, first degree sexual abuse, attempted first degree rape, and endangering the welfare of a child.  He was convicted and faces up to fifty years in prison for these charges.  From class notes on February 2nd we learned about the patterns of reporting for victims; Best states that anyone can be a victim at any time, that it is random adn senseless and that the ideal victim is a respectable person engaged in an innocent activity.  In this case the victim was exactly that, a young female who happened to be a relative of Mr. Ligammari.  From patterns of reporting from the police Fishman claims that police report to the media, avoid stories that do not impact public welfare, emphasize the unusualness of the crime, and promote themselves (class notes, February 2nd).  We see that this holds true in the idea that from such a young age children are socialized to learn about “stranger danger”, the idea that any crime or harm that they face will come from strangers and people whom they do not know and that that is who they should be careful of and look out for.  From articles we have read in class and data that we have observed we can see that this contradicts the reality of these situations; we learn that in regards to the victim offender relationship women are the most likely to know their offenders (in 78% of cases) and this could include intimate partners, relatives, neighbors, acquaintances, etc.  While learning about victim characteristics we see that in regards to gender men are the most likely to be victims except for those convictions of sexual crimes like this one, which makes up 15% of cases.  We also learned that with age 50% of victims are under the age of 25 like the young girl who was victimized in this crime (class notes, March 4th).  On March 23rd we learned the defintions of the convictions which the offender was charged with; the UCR defines forcible rape as the carnal knowledge of a female by force and against her will while the NCVS defines it as forced sexual intercourse including psychological coercion and physical force.  Statutory rape on the other hand is seen as sexual relations with a victim under the age of consent.