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Viewing the Crime Wave from the Inside: Perceived Rates of Extortion among Restauraeurs in Germany

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Abstract

The rarer and more serious a type of crime is, the more the public depends on mediated experiences, either via acquaintances or via the mass media. Prior criminological research has also made the point that although the media over-represent and dramatise certain crimes (e.g. by establishing and referring to so-called ‘crime waves’) the public perception shows some resistance to these influences and maintains a certain kind of resilience and validity of its own. The mass media discourse in 1990s Germany on extortion of restaurateurs (e.g. via protection rackets) is embedded in the wider interpretation frame of organised crime and is dominated by the assumption that for restaurateurs of foreign origin, especially in big cities, the confrontation is omnipresent. The following article presents the results of a survey of restaurateurs (n = 7,900, Winter 1995/96). In discussing the representativeness and validity of the reported direct, vicarious and perceived victimisation, it is suggested that the aggregate of the perceived victimisation is the most valid measure. However, the perception of the Lebenswelt-experts is far from the media's claim of a ubiquitous threat.

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Ohlemacher, T. Viewing the Crime Wave from the Inside: Perceived Rates of Extortion among Restauraeurs in Germany. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 7, 43–61 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008731913895

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