Crimm Chappy 4 Flashcards
(20 cards)
Define Coverage?
How can we obtain reliable data on scope/nature of crime
Define Reliability?
How consistent results are
Define Validity?
Does the tool applied accurately measure crime
Define Methodology?
Need to critically examine the methods used to count crime
How do you calculate the crime rate? are these rates accurate? why/why not?
Divide amount of crime by population size and multiply by 100 000
Often innacurate due to discrepencies in police reports/underestimation of the actual crime level
What is the crime funnel? what is it composed of
?
The levels through which offenders pass when they enter the CJS
Reported
Charged
Convicted
Sentenced
What is the CCJS? what does it address?
Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics - a sophisticated system for statistics
Examples: homicide rate, shelters for abused women, police reported hate crime ect.
The process from records to statistics includes several considerations, what are they?
Unit of count (the what)
Level of aggregation (what goes with what/what data is to be combined)
Definitions (how to define what is being counted
Data elements (what specific info should be collected)
Counting procedures (how to count units and elements)
Why are CJS stats important?
talk through
important in different ways to different groups:
prevention, treatment, fiancial cost of corrections, reasearch into motivations, rate of victimization/victim restitution ect.
What are the dominant ways to count crime?
clue: 3
Official (police reports)
Victimization surveys
Self Report
When was the original UCR (uniform crime report) established? what was the goal?
1962 (conducted annually)
to provide uniform/comparable nationwide stats
What is the seriousness rule? which UCR did this appear on?
The original UCR
Only more serious crimes get reported
What are the problems with the seriousness rule?
It deflates the crime count and inflates the serious crime count - giving an inacurate image to the reality of crime
ex: breaking and entering + murder = only murder in reported to UCR
What is the crime severity index? How does it work?
What is weight based on?
severity of a crime + it’s volume = an index that allows us to track changes over time
Distinguishes rate from volume to detect increases in more severe crimes that go unnoticed by the traditional system
Weight of crime is based on sentencing
What factors influence crime data? give examples
Number of police forces (ride program) Police/ Court admin (YCJA) Changes in legal def of crime (sexual assault 1983) Changes in population base (absolute number vs. rates) Changes in reporting rates
What are victimization surveys/ what kinds of questions do they ask? Benefits? Limitations?
sample of people, asks about their experience with crime in the latst 12 months ( conducted every five years)
Benefits: Greater understanding of nature of crime, useful for identifying at risk populations, estimate cost of victimisation, financial loses, fear produced
Limits: self report so data is not super reliable/data is skewed, incidents involving finances are more likely to be reported
Some stats
How many have been victims in the last 12m?
How many are non violent offences?
What is the reporting rate?
How many people satisfied with personal safety?
what age range is at a higher risk for personal victimization?
1) 25%
2) 70%
3) 31%
4) 93%
5) young people
As of 2009, who had been pinpointed as the average victim?
young, single, male, part-time employment with an active social life
What is a self report studies? Benefits? Limits?
Gathers voluntary information on offenders
Benefits: more accurate representation of what crime is/ what motivates criminals
Limits: Undereporting by some gorups, innacurate information, chronic offenders downplay serious crime while law abiding report petty crime, its difficult to rely on info from chronic offenders
Talk to me about the juvy study?
Portfield 1943
juvy records compared to self report by college students
100% of college students reported similar acts as juvy kids
