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Crime and the crime writer
Fear of the known
Whatever the cause, fear of crime has serious consequences for the way we all live. Like most women, I am reluctant to walk alone at night, and yet it is young men between the ages of 16 and 24 who are at far greater risk of violence than women of any age. Almost no children are allowed to roam around on their own as they did in the 1950s, and yet they are at more risk from family, carers and acquaintances than they are from strangers.
And that sums up the sad truth about violent crime. A great deal of it is committed by people known to the victim. Yes, there are some people who are killed by strangers. A few have been caught in the crossfire of drive-by shootings. The rise in gun crime in big cities like London and Manchester is deeply worrying. Even so, statistically you are still more at risk of violence from your family and friends than you are from strangers. Police figures don't differentiate between violent crimes committed by strangers and by people known to the victim, but a report of the 2000 British Crime Survey confirms that the average risk of violence from a stranger in 1999 was lower than that from an acquaintance.
Perhaps that gives the key to the greatest mystery of all: why are we so excited by crime in fiction? Could we be projecting the violent impulses we sense in ourselves and those around us on to the idea of an 'evil' stranger? I don't know, but if we are, that seems a thoroughly useful strategy for dealing with furies we cannot bear to acknowledge and would never let out. Just as we can safely experience our own fear through the emotions of the victim of a fairy tale or crime novel, so we can project our unacceptable impulses on to the villain and watch in real satisfaction as he is caught and punished. With fiction, we can have it both ways.
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