Forensic psychology Flashcards
(5 cards)
What is a crime?
Crime is any act committed in violation of the law which results in punishment by the state after conviction by a court. It is an act that is harmful to an individual, group or society as a whole.
What are some difficulties with the definition of crime?
Cultural issues in defining crime: what is considered a crime in one culture may not be in another e.g. euthanasia
Historical issues: Attitudes change according to historical context
Issues of age and intention: the same behaviour can be seen as criminal in one case but not another if they are not of ‘sound mind’.
White collar crimes are harder to monitor- they cause less obvious harm
Crimes change over time e.g. homosexuality, rape within marriage
Crime is socially constructed: it relates to the dominant morals and values of a particular culture at a particular time
How can we measure crime?
Official statistics- These are government records of the total number of crimes reported to the police and recorded in the official figures. They are published by the Home Office on an annual basis and are a useful snapshot of the number of crimes occurring across the country and in specific regions. They allow the government to develop crime prevention strategies and policing initiatives as well as direct resources to those areas most in need.
Victim surveys- periodically filling out questionnaires anonymously. These use random samples of 50,000 households and record people’s experience of crime over a specific period. It asks people which crimes have been committed against them and whether or not they had reported them.
Offender surveys- a self report measure that involves individuals volunteering details of the number and types of crimes they have committed over a specific period of time. They tend to target groups of likely offenders based on risk factors such as social background and age. They also look at indicators of repeat offending, trends in the prevalence of offending, drug and alcohol use, the role of co-offenders and the relationship between perpetrators and victims.
What is the dark figure?
Crimes that go unrecorded.
Evaluate ways of measuring crime.
Official statistics: Official statistics are unreliable as they significantly underestimate the true extent of crime- some commentators suggest only 25 percent of crimes are included in official figures with the other 75 % being the dark figure. Police recording rules also differ from place to place- e.g. Nottinghamshire is more likely to report thefts of under 10 pounds, making it look like there is a spike in crime.
Victim surveys: More likely to include details of crimes missed by official statistics and discount for the dark figure- in 2006 official statistics suggested a 2% decrease in crime while victim surveys showed a 3 % increase. Telescoping might occur- a victim misremembering an event s having happened in the past year because the trauma is so fresh however it didn’t- this may distort figures.
Offender surveys: Provide insight into how many people are responsible for certain offences as a small group of people may have contributed many. However, despite confidentiality being assured, responses are unreliable as an individual might want to conceal or exaggerate the number of crimes they have committed. The targeted nature of the survey also means certain crimes such as burglary are over represented while middle class ones such as corporate fraud are unlikely to be included.
Might be impacted by political agendas- making opposition look bad, trying to show crime is falling, low validity
a multidisciplinary approach is required to due to each method having particularly reliability and validity issues with the data.
