Crime Rates Perception and their Effect on Gender and Age

Crime Rates’ Perception and their Effect on Gender and Age 1
Crime Rates’ Perception and their Effect on Gender and Age
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Crime Rates’ Perception and their Effect on Gender and Age 2
ABSTRACT
The research was designed to determine; i) whether female and male
perception about the crime levels in the past few years in the UK had
changed; ii) vandalism cases witnessed by different age group was
significantly different; iii) whether there was an association between
confidence in fairness in the CJS and the trust in the police; iv) and lastly
whether there was a linear relationship between age and number of children
under 12. The research used a quantitative approach to answer the research
questions. It was found there exists a significant difference in average
perception in crime level change in the past few years between the male and
females. The ANOVA test indicated that there was a significant difference in
average vandalism incidences witnessed by different age group. Cross
tabulation indicated that there was a strong relationship between confidence
in fairness in CJS and the trust in police among the male

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INTRODUCTION
Public confidence in the judicial arm of government is imperative (Mirrlees-
Black, 2016; Roberts, 2018). The confidence in judicial ensures that the
public perceives the system as fair, effective and transparent (Bradford &
Myhill, 2015). Bradford and Myhill, (2015) pointed out a close relationship
between the confidence criminaljustice system (CJS) and police. In that light,
this researchanalyzed the judicial system in the UK (member countries of the
EU). A sample of 1613 participants (708 males and 905 females) was used in
the analysis. This can be considered to be a large sample (Keller, 2015).
Background of the Study
Public confidence anthem judicial system and policies ranked as a factor
number one that helps a smooth running of CJS (Bradford & Myhill, 2015). The
two, criminal justice system and the police department, work hand in hand to
enforce the law. These scholars pointed out the existing strong relationship
between the trust in police and judicial system on the order and cohesion of
the society. In fact, when an individual is victimized, he/she has confidence
that the rule of law will follow the suit and just action taken. However, this
research analyzed whether there was a relationship between judicial system
trust/confidence and police confidence based on gender.
Greenberg, (1985) pointed that most of the research pointed a social
relationship between age and crime as an error, but given the time has
significantly changed, literacy increased, theunemployment rate decreased

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(since 1985 to date).The pervasivenessand fear of crime increase with
age(LaGrange & Ferraro, 2017), and criminal behavior ebbs and flows over an
individual course of life (Thornberry, 2018). Thus, it is important to determine
whether the decline in crimes (vandalism) with age is a valid claim.
BBC news on Jan 24, 2019 reported that crime rates in England and Wales
have increased by approximately 19% (BBC News, 2019). However, the
question that remains is; “is the change different among the male and
female UK residents?” Thus, this study is directed towards representing
crime rates perception and their effect on gender and age among the UK
residents.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study will be in quantitative research, where different statistical analysis
approaches were used to achieve the research objective. According to
Chatfield, (2018) quantitative approach allows greater objectivity and
accuracy of the results. Also, it allows generalization as the limitation of the
study is accounted for and accuracy using the error approach estimated
(Keller, 2015). Generally, the research evaluated; public confidence on CJS and
the police, whether crime and age are related, and the effect of gender on
crime. More specifically, the study evaluated how gender and age affects
crime rates in the UK (27 countries in the EU). The sample of 1613
individuals aged 16 years and above from the Crime Survey for England and

Crime Rates’ Perception and their Effect on Gender and Age 5
Wale (CSEW) data. The data mostly explores respondents ‘experiences of
crime in the past 12 months.
Research Question
This study scrutinized the following research questions in regards to the
topic;
i. Is there a significant difference in the average number of vandalism
cases by age (16 – 30 years, 31-60 years and 60+ years)
ii. Is the average perceived change in crime level in the past few years
(national) different between male and female?
iii. Is there a linear relationship between age and number of children in
the family?
The study is descriptive nature and the data used were secondary data.
Thus, there was no need for consensus or other aspects of research
associated with the experiment (e.g. Consent, confidentiality, anonymity,
and professional separation among others).
Data Analysis
As indicated, this is a quantitative research, which means at the end, the
hypotheses were tested and inference made based on the results. However,
first, descriptive analysis is vital to understand the data distribution (Sullivan
III, 2015). The descriptive analysis applied both graphical and statistical

Crime Rates’ Perception and their Effect on Gender and Age 6
approaches in visualizing and displaying the distributions of the variables.
Pictorial display such as histograms and box plots visualized the distribution
of numerical (ratio scaled) variables. Whereas the bar chart and pie chart
visualized for the nominal/categorical data. The inferential analysis first
involved the assessment of the assumptions underlying the inferential tests
before carrying out the tests and thereafter the post analyses if necessary
(Chatfield, 2018). The assessment of the assumptions underlying an inferential
test is important in establishing whether the attributes of a dataset can be
evaluated using that particular test. The assumption assessment plays a vital
role in ensuring that the analysis results are accurate and reliable.
First, the two-sample independent t-test was performed to determine
whether the average perceived change in crime level in the past few years
(national) is different between male and female. The assumptions underlying
the two-sample independent t-test are as follows (Keller, 2015):
i. Independence of the observations
ii. The data should have two independent groups.
iii. No significant outlier.
iv. Normality of the independent variable. However, if the sample is
sufficiently large (n ≥ 30), this assumption can be violated and still the
test yields valid results.
Second, the analysis applied the one-way ANOVA test to determine whether
there is a significant difference in the average number of vandalism cases by