GROWTH OF VIOLENT CRIMES IN REPORTED NEWS AND PAKISTANI SOCIETY (1970s-2000s)

Abstract

This study aims at examining the increase in violent crimes in the journalistic world of news, published in the highest circulated Daily Jang which is taken as a day-to-day reflection of the real crime scene in Pakistani society across the four decades (i.e.1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s). Rate of deaths and injuries alongside the treatment of reported crime news were also evaluated to identify the changing trends in the journalistic world of news. Crimes statistics provided by Bureau of Police Research and Development were further referred to compare relevance between the real and the reported crime scenes. Results show that the rate of crimes has increased both in journalistic world as well as in Pakistani society during the forty years sampled, but the inc rease is curvilinear rather than linear in nature. There seems to be fragile, proportional relationship between the two variables as far as number and growth of crimes are concerned. At the core level, this research analyzes the dynamic factors including national, regional and global socio-economic especially political scenario that lead to an extremely volatile environment in the country by 2000s. It is popularly assumed that Pakistani society becomes increasingly intolerant and violent day by day though most of the crimes committed never reported either in police stations or in newspapers.