Myths and Facts about Violence/Crime

 

Myth-Reducing prison populations will increase crime.

Fact-Reserving prison beds for people who need them the most, which can reduce the present population, does not increase crime.

Myth-Longest sentences enhance public safety.

Fact-“Right sizing” prison sentences for providing alternatives to incarceration improve public safety.

Myth-Reform is a blue state issue.

Fact-Reform is a cross-cutting bipartisan issue.

Myth-Reform ends when legislation is enacted.

Fact-Reform is an ongoing process that takes time and resources to implement.

Myth-Community supervision is less effective than incarceration.

Fact-Supervision can lead to positive results for individuals and their communities.

Myth-Eyewitnesses are highly reliable.

Fact-Mistaken eyewitness testimony was a contributing factoring more than a third of the wrongful conviction cases contained in a database mentioned by the national registry of of exonerations.

 

Myth-Criminal investigators have enormous data system at their fingertips that track virtually everything about all of us.

Fact-Police do have access to lots of data but typically use it to find a known suspect her other than identify an unknown suspect.

Myth-Forensic examiners (CSIs) investigate crimes, carry weapons, and can process complex crimes in minutes. 

Fact-The typical piece of DNA collected from a crime scene takes months to process (if it is at all) and the civilian processing it is different from the evidence collector.

Myth-Most crimes are solved by fingerprints and DNA. 

Fact-Less than one percent of all serious crimes are solved by DNA and fingerprints do only slightly better.

Myth-Fingerprints can definitively match a person to a crime scene.

Fact-Fingerprint matches are entirely subjective and we have no idea whether the cliché that all fingerprints are unique is actually true.

Myth-There is an epidemic of children being kidnapped from their homes in the dead of night. 

Fact-The FBI estimates that in 2008 a total of 155 children were kidnapped by strangers, thus a child is about 5 times more likely to drown than be kidnapped.

 

Myth-There are two typical types of offenders: one is the brilliant loner psychopath who commits serial crimes and can’t be caught without the aid of large task forces, luck, and equally brilliant loner detectives. 

Fact-Most criminals are far less educated, poorer, and sicker than the average American.

Myth-Type two is the ruthless, soulless gang-banger who can only be contained (but never defeated) by armies of police. 

Fact-Gang members are typically teenagers, generally in a gang for about a year before voluntarily leaving, and commit as many crimes against their fellow gang members as others.

Myth-Serial killers account for many murder victims. 

Fact-Out of almost 15,000 homicides in 2010, perhaps one percent were victims of a serial killer, while 4 times as many were victims of infanticide.

Myth-There are a lot of adolescent predators on the loose. 

Fact-At any given time there are very few juveniles whose behaviour has warranted a placement in secure confinement.

Myth-The offences of Voyeurism and Stalking will trap innocent men.

Fact-The offence of Voyeurism as defined in Sec. 354C IPC, is very specific and pointed in scope and has no possibility of misuse or abuse. In villages, towns and cities, we know that the poor do not enjoy the luxury of a private bathroom in their homes. This makes the young girls and women particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse even as they perform routine activities of bathing, attending to the call of nature in fields and open public places. They are always fearful of men who may use this occasion to watch them or take pictures of them as they perform these private activities. The offence of Voyeurism will punish a man who watches or records a woman while she is in any private act where her private body parts may be exposed. This offence seeks to uphold the dignity of women and makes the violation of their fundamental right to privacy a crime.

Stalking:The crime of stalking takes a serious toll on the life of women. Gripped by fear and anxiety due to being repeatedly followed by a man, girls and women have been forced to drop out of education, quit jobs and even change homes to escape the stalker. Stalkers are also known to throw acid on their victims, as a way to take revenge. By making stalking a crime, the law can actually prevent rape and other forms of aggravated sexual crimes and save innocent women from being brutally sexually assaulted or killed. The codification of this crime will fill an important lacuna in the present law. Only in situations where a man repeatedly follows a woman, either physically or through the Internet and this causes her fear or distress, will the crime of stalking be recognized as such.

Myth-The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2013 is against men.

Fact-The new anti-sexual violence Bill is NOT against men. For our fathers, brothers, husbands, partners, neighbors and colleagues are men too. Are these Men in our lives not committed to seeking an end to the constant threat of sexual violence lurking around every corner? Yes, men must, and men do support this Bill. For this bill is against criminals. It is against the scourge of sexual violence, and seeks to prevent and protect our society from heinous sexual crimes like rape, molestation, disrobing and parading of women and stalking.

We know that men too can be vulnerable to sexual attacks by criminal men. And we welcome the Bill’s recognition that both men and women can be victims of acid attack and provides protection to all ‘persons’ for these offences. But we further ask you, our Parliamentarians, to recognize that men must also be protected against the crime of rape and custodial rape committed by other men, and to change the definition of victim in section 375 and section 376 (2) to ‘person’ and not restrict victimhood in these instances to women alone. Men and women are and must remain partners in this battle against sexual violence. And all ‘persons’ deserve protection of the law against rape.

 

Myth-If the age of consent for sexual act is lowered to 16 years, this will encourage child marriage, prostitution and trafficking.

Fact-The age of consent for sexual relations in India has stood at 16 years for the last 30 years, since 1983. The age was increased without adequate public discussion in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, May 2012, 9 months ago, and later, in the hasty Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance of Feb 4th 2013. The JVC report recommends that it be retained at 16 years as it always has been in the IPC, to prevent criminalization of young persons for consensual sex. Women’s groups are merely asking for it to be retained at 16 years, rather than increase it unthinkingly to 18 years.

Retaining age of consent at 16 years does not mean social or moral endorsement or encouragement of teenage sexual activity. The law is not asking young people to do this or that. This is merely an acknowledgement that if two young people con-sensually decide to engage in sexual contact, we might want to teach them and educate them but we do not want to treat them instantly as criminals, or consign them to custody. For that is what ‘age of consent’ means – it means that a boy who has sexual contact with someone below the age of consent is committing statutory rape. If that age is now raised to 18, it means that boys of 16-18 years, or slightly older, will be held guilty of committing statutory rape if they have consensual sex with another person who is also between 16-18 years. In such cases, the judge will have no discretion under law and will be forced to place such boys in protection home (if under 18 years) or in jails (18 or above).