Chapter 3

Question 1

What are the 3 main source of information on youth crime?

Answer 1

1. Media
2. Statistics provided by social-control agencies
3. Researchers

Question 2

Surveys and field research:

Answer 2

• more accurate representation of actual criminal activity
• why? they are specifically designed by researchers to focus on the actual amount and nature of criminal activity.

Question 3

Agencies like police, courts, and corrections:

Answer 3

• criminal activity decreases as the source moves through the system (e.g., not all crimes lead to charges or convictions).

Question 4

What does media tells us about youth crime?

Answer 4

• most people obtain infos about youth crime from newspapers and tv news report.
• sometimes journalists write books about youth crime.
• while the info might be accurate, presenting it without historical context or discussing the limitations of the sources can be misleading.
• the lack of context can fuel public fears on youth crime.

Question 5

What does Police stats tells us about youth crime?

Answer 5

• police data were standardized by the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system.
• Crime Severity Index (CSI) measures crime seriousness by factoring in both the offence type and the average court sentence, with more serious sentences assigned higher values.

Question 6

What does Court stats tells us about youth crime?

Answer 6

• youth court stats don’t measure youth crime; they only measure the cases that are dealt with through courts.

-the value of court records is that they can provide info about offenders and their offences.

• these are normally not open to public scrutiny.

Question 7

What does self-report surveys tells us about youth crime?

Answer 7

• self-report studies reveal that youth crime involves a broader range of people, while official records often focus on poorer, working class, and minority youth, underrepresenting middle-class offenders.

Question 8

what are victimization surveys?

Answer 8

• ask individuals if they have been victims of various categories of crime.
• demonstrate that crimes are usually underreported.
• Vic. Surveys focus on crimes against individuals and households and thus don’t measure other common offences such as shoplifting.

Question 9

Property crime:

Answer 9

is the most common of all youth offending behaviour. Mischief and motor vehicle theft are also frequent among youth.

Question 10

Violent Offences:

Answer 10

are less common; however, they attract the most attention.

Question 11

Sexual assault:

Answer 11

SA cases are rare but are a concern. Children and youth are far more likely to be victims of sexual assault than to be offenders.

Question 12

Murder:

Answer 12

Murder cases are rare among youth but also receives attention.

Question 13

Administrative offences:

Answer 13

include such cases as failing to appear in court or failing to comply with bail conditions, failure to comply with a probation order, escape from lawful custody.

Question 14

Measurement issues: what is validity?

Answer 14

“refers to whether we are measuring what we think we are measuring”

Question 15

Measurement issues: what is reliability?

Answer 15

“refers to whether we can repeat the results that we get”