ABSTRACT
Almost every day the news media confront people with policy questions relating to sentencing, gun control, drugs and crime, violent offenders, young offenders, parole and many other criminal justice issues. In England, the government has proposed abolishing the right of a suspect to remain silent under interrogation by the police. Surveys in the US, Canada and Australia have consistently found that the public hold several misperceptions about crime rates. These include the view that crime rates are always rising and that a high percentage of crimes involves violence. Public misperceptions about offenders include the extent to which they re-offend. When members of the public were asked to estimate the percentage of first-time offenders that would be re-convicted within five years of release, they over-estimated the recidivism rates of property offenders and offenders convicted of crimes involving violence. Most people have a great deal of interest in crime and justice.
