The former crimes are, for example, catalogued in statistics collected annually by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States and by similar agencies in other developed nations. We also know that the data gathered are widely dispersed by the mass media. In contrast, the latter crimes are neither calculated by governmental agencies nor are they routinely reported on in the mass media. Even though most criminologists are well aware that the average person is increasingly at greater risk for and more likely to experience harm and injury from the latter criminals than the former criminals, the asymmetrical relationship continues between our knowledge of the crimes of the powerful and our knowledge of the crimes of the powerless for a myriad of related reasons.

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