Читать книгу Criminology For Dummies - Steven Briggs - Страница 19

When police respond to a 9-1-1 call, they’re almost always responding to an individual crime. Someone was assaulted or burglarized, for example. Typically, police treat violent crimes much more seriously than they do property crimes. For example, although a murder investigation may have ten or more cops assigned to it, police may not even respond in person to investigate a burglary at a home. Obviously, this discrepancy occurs because protecting personal safety is the number one job of people in law enforcement; plus, police resources are finite.

Here are the crimes you most likely think of when you consider individual crimes:

Violent Crimes	Property Crimes
Murder and manslaughter	Theft (including shoplifting, embezzlement, Internet fraud, identity theft, and car theft)
Assault and battery (including domestic abuse, child abuse, and vehicular assault)	Burglary
Sexual crimes (rape, sodomy, and child molestation)	Arson
Robbery

Obviously, the punishment for violent crime is much more severe than it is for property crime. A person who shoplifts from a convenience store (a property crime) will get a much lighter sentence than someone who sticks a gun in the store clerk’s face and demands cash (the violent crime of robbery).

Among different violent offenses, the punishment can vary depending on whether a weapon was used, how much harm was caused, and whether the “bad guy” intended to cause harm. For example, a drunk driver who crashes and kills his passenger will receive a much shorter prison sentence than a woman who knowingly poisons her mother-in-law. The drunk driver didn’t intend to kill anyone, but the evil daughter-in-law surely did. (For more info, check out Chapter 5 on violent crimes and Chapter 6 on property crimes.)