Measuring & Defining Crime Flashcards
(26 cards)
What are official statistics?
figures based on the numbers of crimes that are reported/recorded by the police which are often used by the government to inform crime presentation strategies
AO3 official statistics
Farrington & Dowds: only about 25% crime reported, Nottingham police more likely to report theft below 10 pounds hence spike
- police priories may distort figures
What are victim surveys?
a questionnaire which asks a sample of 50,000 households what crimes have been committed against them over the period of a year (CSEW)
AO3 victim surveys
include crimes not reported by police (2006/7) OS 2% crime decrease but VS 3% increase
- rely on respondents to be accurate
What are offender surveys?
a self-report measure that requires people to record the number and types of crimes that have committed over a specific period
AO3 offender surverys
despite anonymity, offenders may not be honest - concealing crimes or over exaggerating
AO3 multidisciplinary approach
each method has issues in terms of reliability/validity of data they produce, so all figures should be carefully scrutinised/interpreted
researchers advocate combining all for best insight into true extent of offending
What is the top-down approach?
profiles start with a pre-established typology and decide whether offenders are organised or disorganised based on eyewitness accounts and evidence from the crime scene
What is an organised offender?
evidence of planning, targets the victim and tends to be socially/sexually competent with higher than average intelligence
What is an disorganised offender?
an offender who shows little evidence of planning, leave clues and tends to be socially and sexually incompetent with lower than average intelligence
How is an FBI profile contructed?
- data assimilation (review evidence - photos, pathology reports)
- crime scene classification - organised VS disorganised
- crime reconstruction - hypothesis about behaviour/events
- profile generation - hypothesis about offender e.g. background
AO3 top-down - limited approach
-crimes that reveal improtant details about suspect (rape, murder) limited approach as common offences e.g burglary don’t lend themselves to profiling as they reveal little about the offender
AO3 top-down - based on outdated models of personality
- typology based on idea pattern of behaviour is consistent across situations and contexts Alison et al: see behaviour as driven by dispositional traits rather than constantly changing external factors - may have poor validity when it comes to identifying suspects/prediticting next move
AO3 top-down - evidence does not support disorganised offender
- Canter et al: smallest space analysis 100 murders - each case compared against 39 characteristics typical of organised/disorgansied killers - evidence for organised type but not disorganised - undermines classification system
AO3 top-down - original sample from which typologies were constructed
interviews 36 killers in US (small, unrepresentative sample) - Canter argued not sensible to rely on self-report of convince killers to construct a classification system - questions validity of the approach
What is the bottom-up approach?
when profilers work up from evidence collected from the crime scene to develop hypothesis about the likelihood;y characteristics, motivations and social background of the offender
What is investigative psychology?
form of bottom-up that matches details from the crime scene with statistical analysis of typical offender behaviour patterns based on psychological theory - statistical database for comparison - try to figure out whether a series of offences are linked to one person
What is interpersonal coherence?
the idea that the way an offender behaves at the crime scene may reflect their behaviour in everyday situations
What is geographical profiling?
a form on bottom-up based on the idea of spatial consistency - offenders operational base and possible future offences revealed by geographical location of previous crimes
Explain Canter’s circle theory
the marauder: operates close to home base
the commuter: likely to travelled a distance away from usual residence
- Canter&Larkin suggest pattern of offending locations likely to form a circle around offender’s usual residence, becomes more apparent the more offences there are
- offenders spatial decision making can provide insight into nature of the offence
AO3 bottom-up approach - support for investigative psychology
Canter&Heritage: content analysis 66 sexual assault cases using smallest space analysis - several characteristics commonly identified leading to understanding of how an offenders behaviour may change across series of offences or establishing whether 2+ offences were committed by the same person - usefulness and how statistical techniques can be applied
AO3 bottom-up approach - supports geographical profiling
120 murder cases in US - smallest space analysis revealed spatial consistency in behaviour of killers - location of each body disposal sight identified ‘centre of gravity’ - noticeable for marauders - supports idea spatial information is a key factor in determining base of an offender
AO3 bottom-up approach - scientific basis
geographical, biographical, psychological data used to quickly produce data to assist investigation - more objective and scientific than top-down
AO3 bottom-up approach - use in judicial process
investigative psychology expanded to include suspect interviewing and examination of material presented in court
