Publication Date

Winter 12-10-2010

Abstract

The city of Bloomington conducted a large city-wide survey at the end of 2009. One of the major revelations from this survey was that the west-side of Bloomington had a higher perception rate of crime in comparison to other parts of the city. Members of the Bloomington Police Department (BPD) theorized that one of the possible causes for this heightened perception was due to victimization. Victimization occurs when people refuse or neglect to report crimes, thus fostering an atmosphere where crimes could occur unpunished. This caused Karen Schmidt, a city council member, to set out and create a survey focused on the west-side. In cooperation with the BPD a survey was created focusing on victimization along with the following other aspects: fear of crime, causes of crimes, frequency of crimes, and community involvement. The hopes for this survey were to provide insight into what has caused the west-side to differ from the rest of Bloomington and possibly how to solve these issues.

Disciplines

Political Science

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