Crime Frames and Gender Differences
The article’s story is about the examination of differences in gender crime frame concerns and responses to crimes concerning human trafficking. Crime frames raise high levels of interest that can activate the criminal justice system crime response. Gender difference discrimination is a cause of human trafficking; hence, human trafficking is a crime framed by policymakers, the media, and NGOs in which women are at increased risk of victimization. Frames are presented as powerful tools for elites in politics to activate concerns in public and motivate support of government action. It exemplifies how public alarm and fear of crime exaggeration in the media leading to an increased range of crime solutions. Criminalization of human trafficking is not a new phenomenon. It serves as a useful tool to prioritize abuses of human rights through framing on public opinion, the creation of gender-sensitive policies and criminal justice issues.
The demographic characters involved in the article study include about 52% male aged between 16 and 49 years and 48% female of age between 17 and 49 years in the unweighted sample (Charnysh et al., 2015). The racial and ethnic characteristic of the male and female samples was 3.94% Black, 8.65% Hispanic, and 77.98% White and 10.13% Black, 10.49% Hispanic and 72.23% White, respectively. Other ethnicities are grouped as a reference category. Also, the region of residence was used in demographics, with the majority of both men and women representing south compared to the other areas. Concerning the political point of few, most men voted to be more of democrats than publicans, while also women scored highly for democrats. In the weighted sample combining both genders, the White race constituted the largest study population, 75.19%, followed by Hispanic at 9.53%, and lastly, Black at 8.45%.
The findings from the study are based on beliefs about causes and concerns of human trafficking and activation of crime response. From gender concern levels on human trafficking, the study portrays that women are almost two times more likely than men to be quite concerned about human trafficking (Charnysh et al., 2015). On the addition of perceptions about transnational crime and gender discrimination from the study, women are about one and a half times to be alarmed and concerned than men. Based on gender discrimination as the cause of human trafficking, women are three times more likely to be alarmed and concerned than men. Based on the demographic characteristics, public alarm varies. Hispanic and Black respondents are about two times extremely concerned than other races and ethnicities. Based on location, people from Southern states are more concerned than other regions. Nonetheless, from the findings, irrespective of levels of concern, women are more likely to call hotline or police in response to human trafficking incidents.
The most affected law is human trafficking, which involves the trading of humans for slavery and commercial sexual exploitation. The black ethnic groups and communities are termed as the most participants in human traffick crimes, especially the men. The rate of response regarding black women is quite high than then Hispanic and white women (Charnysh et al., 2015). From the study, men are the primary consumers of the commercial sex industries. As a result, those men may be less inclined to think that gender inequality and discrimination of gender causes human trafficking.
The article confirms that gender is crucial and prone to public opinion about crime issues and gender. Problem framing explains the gender gap in concerns on crime and crime responses, raising a general alarm. A public warning can close the gap in crime responses and give awareness and substantial education that leads to the broader knowledge to the public. The problem frames could be preferably the best method in measuring the crimes and crime responses. They can guide future interventions in gender differences to enhance quick response and perhaps lead to high incident reports to criminal justice departments.