Sexual Assault Offenses in Melville City Council

Running Head: Sexual Assault 1
Sexual Assault Offenses in Melville City Council
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INTRODUCTION
Melville City lies in the suburbs of Perth one of the largest cities in Australia. This proximity to
such a big city leaves Melville City at a high risk of experiencing crimes such as sexual assault.
This happens as a result of the high population in the Capital spills over to the suburbs. Fighting
crimes should not only take a punitive approach through the arresting of the individuals who
commit acts that are deemed to be criminal by the laws of Western Australia. Therefore, it is
important to understand that it takes both environmental factors and individual factors for one to
commit an offense. Several theories have been fronted to explain why individuals indulge in
crimes. According to classical law theorists, Bentham (2017) and Beccaria (2009), man was
endowed with the ability to choose what they feel is best for them and that man was created in a
way that they always live searching and seeking for maximum pleasure in life. However, the
positivist school of thought believes that to commit a crime one is driven by biological,
sociological, and physiological factors. Scholars like Lochner and Moretti (2004) carried out a
study and concluded that some of the social factors that predispose individuals to crime include
poverty, age, gender, education and the use of substances such as alcohol.
SEXUAL ASSAULT CRIME PATTERNS IN MELVILLE CITY
Crime patterns study is greatly expounded in the study of crime mapping. Crime mapping is an
essential study that enables crime agencies to be able to analyze and visualize crime occurrence
patterns. The proper understanding of crime mapping enables law enforcement agencies to fight
crimes. With crime patterns, the City Council of Melville will get to know what areas are
experiencing crime rates, for instance, the marking of public transport areas as a hot crime one in
Melville City involves crime mapping. Such an area is known as crime nodes (Hill and Paynich,
2013). Hill and Paynich (2013) discuss crime mapping through the identification of the various
nodes in an environmental set.
Normally, the offender has his day to day life and places in which he gets to spend most of his
hours a day. These places according to Hill and Paynich (2013) are referred to as activity areas.
In this case, the activity nodes for the offenders in Melville city would be the public transport
areas. The routes these offenders use to reach this area is usually referred to as the paths. The
interaction of offenders and their victims takes place in the activity areas, paths, awareness areas,

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and the peripheral areas. These are the areas that an offender visits occasionally. The city public
transport area acts as a 'crime magnet' this is due to the fact that the area has a high population
and at least every day a new person comes to the city.
Sexual Assault in Melville City
According to Mogavero and Hsu (2018), sexual offenders are usually a mobile lot of offenders,
that is, they would scout for victims in their activity areas seclude them and later sexually assault
them in a more secluded environment (the peripheral area- this is the area surrounding the
activity area of the offender). It is therefore important that the city police enforcement agencies
to study and apply crime mapping techniques to enable them predict the preferred location,
victims, and situational circumstances and conditions that would lead to the offender committing
the heinous act with the victim in the in a place other than where he first crossed paths with the
offender.
The rational choice theory has an impact on sexual assault cases. This theory developed by
Clarke evaluates the circumstances that lead to one eventually committing an offense ( Lersch,
2011). This process involves victim evaluation, here the offender scouts for a victim that looks
less resistive, the gains, and the possible risks that they face if they were to sexually assault their
victim. Seigel (2009), establishes the fact that the perpetrator compares the gains of his actions
versus the punishment he will face when caught to see whether or not the presumed gains
outweigh the risks. This, therefore, means that reviewing the Criminal Code Compilation Act of
1913 to provide for dire consequences for those liable for sexual assault. This will shift the
balance to the risks' side, thus preventing such crimes in Melville City.
It is often difficult to have a clear representation of how many people have been sexually
assaulted. A report done by the Australian Institute of Criminology Research and Public Policy
(Series No. 36), outlined issues like the fear of not being believed or the act of feeling ashamed
as being a hindrance to having a clear data. This has a great effect on crime mapping and the
establishment of a crime pattern that enables the police to curb sexual assault offenses in the city
of Melville. It is prudent that the police be in a position to establish the relationship between the
offender and his victim once a sexual assault claim has been filed. In addition, a forensic study