by Richard Moran

About the author: Richard Moran is a professor of sociology and criminology at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Meteorologists add the wind-chill factor to their winter weather forecasts to make the actual temperature seem worse than it is. Likewise, when the F.B.I. reported [in May 1996] that serious crime had declined slightly for the fourth year in a row, it was still making the statistics sound worse than they actually were. That’s because the Government tends to exaggerate the violent nature of crime.

How Violent Is Violent Crime"

According to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, less than a third of the 6.6 million violent crimes committed in the United States in 1992 (the last year for which statistics are available) resulted in injury; most of the victims suffered only minor cuts...