PAPER 2 PART 4 TEST 1 PAPER 2 WRITING 1 hour 30 minutes PART 1 Read the two texts below. Write an essay summarising and evaluating the key points from both texts. Use your own words throughout as far as possible, and include your own ideas in your answer. Write your answer in 240-280 words. 1 Perceptions of Crime In many places all over the world, surveys again and again show that crime is, if not top of the list, very high up amongst most people’s concerns. The response from the authorities is often to pull out sets of statistics aimed at showing that crime, or at any rate certain kinds of crime, has in fact fallen. Such pronouncements do very little to allay the public’s fears, however, since these are based not only on an impression of how serious a problem crime is arising from media reports, but also on personal experience and anecdotal evidence they get from people they talk to Rising Crime The idea that crime is rising is commonplace among vast swathes of the population. Statistics from the forces of law and order frequently tell a different story, but these tend to be dismissed as untrustworthy, especially since these are often seen as being highly selective and leaving out inconvenient truths. Statistics, goes the popular view, can be manipulated to show almost anything. But is the assumption that crime is rising necessarily true? There is certainly historical evidence that crime rates were higher for certain kinds of crime decades ago. Such comparisons are of little relevance, however - what naturally concerns people is how likely they are to be victims of crime today or tomorrow. Write your essay. Before you write your essay, go on to pages 25-27. 24