crime and deviance measurements and definitions

Question 1

crime

Answer 1

a legal wrong followed by legal proceedings

Question 2

deviance

Answer 2

behvaiour which is disapproved of by most people in society

Question 3

social construction

Answer 3

created ad defined by society

Question 4

relative

Answer 4

vary according to time, society and circumstances

Question 5

social order

Answer 5

conformity to the shared norm and values, society ispeaceful and predictable

Question 6

official crime statistics

Answer 6

produced from police, coruts and prison records

Question 7

crime survey for england and wales

Answer 7

csew - a victim survey which aska people bout their experiences of crime

Question 8

police recorded crime figure - strengths

Answer 8

• easy to access
• up to date and standardised
• representative of population

Question 9

police recorded crime figures - limitations

Answer 9

• undetected/unrecorded
• ‘dark figure of crime’
• varying accuracy
• public perception changes
• police discretion

Question 10

dark figure of crime

Answer 10

includes rimes which are unrecorded

Question 11

mumsnet 2012

Answer 11

83% of those whove been raped/sa went unreported
- embarassed due to low conviction rates
- 70% media is unsympathetic to women whove been raped

Question 12

police discretion

Answer 12

individual officers may be corrput which comprimises accuracy

Question 13

functionalist view on police stats

Answer 13

• measuring social behaviour scientifically
• uses ‘typical criminal’

Question 14

new right view on police stats

Answer 14

• accept typical criminal
• laws are made to benefit society

Question 15

left realist view on police stats

Answer 15

should be supplemented by other methods like victim surveys

Question 16

feminist view on police stats

Answer 16

females commit less crime than males

Question 17

marxist view on police stats

Answer 17

tool used to control the working class and to justify their oppression

Question 18

interactionist view on police stats

Answer 18

• social construction of statistics
• police labelling

Question 19

radical cirminologists view on police stats

Answer 19

police labelling for political reasons

Question 20

victim studies

Answer 20

csew - afce to face structured interviews
- representative 35k adults and 3k children per year
- respondents asked about personally experienced crimes

Question 21

limitations of victim studies

Answer 21

• victimless crimes
• 16+ in the past
• overall trends are an estimate
• respond rate is 75%

Question 22

islington crime survey

Answer 22

1/3 of all households experiencesserious crimes and unemployment issues
- 28% felt unsafe in homes

Question 23

islington crime survey - young 1988

Answer 23

higher rate of female victimistion, non reporting of domestic offences

Question 24

islington crime survey limitations

Answer 24

• dark figure of crime is present
• ## response rates

Question 25

islington crime survey limitations

Answer 25

- dark figure of crime is present - response rates - overestimation of crime as non vicitms wont see point of taking aprt

Question 26

self report studies

Answer 26

involves asking people about their offences - focused on youth and minor crimes - police stats overemphasise w/c men involvement in crimes

Question 27

the cambridge study - self report

Answer 27

followed cirminal careers of 411 south london - boys aged 8-32 in 1961

Question 28

the edinburgh study - self report

Answer 28

longditudinal study of the offending careers of 4000 young people

Question 29

issues of self report studies

Answer 29

validity attrition ethics

Question 30

validity issues

Answer 30

participants may conceal offendings - 2% of uncovicted boys claimed to be convicted - young males admit that they are convicted but older males dont

Question 31

west and farrington - validity issues

Answer 31

age 18 - 94% of convicted boys admitted they had been convicted

Question 32

attrition issues

Answer 32

participation and drop out rates - difficult participants to find - high attrition rate is missing frequent offenders

Question 33

ethical issues

Answer 33

informed consent confidentiality right to withdraw (edinburgh study)