Quantitative research Flashcards
(29 cards)
What is epistemology in criminology?
It’s the study of how criminologists know what they know, how knowledge is produced, and why that matters.
What are the three key epistemological questions in criminology?
1) What do we know?
2) How do we know it?
3) What does it mean to know something?
What do we know about age and gender in relation to offending and victimisation?
young people more likely to offend and be victimised
men more likely to offend and be a victim of crime compared to women and girls
What do we know about the concentration of crime in relation to the population?
50% of crime is committed by 5% of people
What do we know about the geographical distribution of crime?
No, it concentrates in “hotspots” such as specific buildings or streets.
Therefore victimisation is often repeated and clustered in certain groups or areas, often occurring in the same ‘hotspots’
What do we know about the types of crime that dominate statistics?
Minor or less serious crimes like misdemeanors and property crimes.
What is positivist criminology?
A scientific approach focused on objective, quantitative data to explain crime.
What are the sources of crime knowledge?
Media/pop culture, personal/vicarious experience, police data, victim surveys, academic research.
What is a criminological theory?
A scientific explanation of why crime happens, linking causes to outcomes.
Can be individual or community level theories e.g. rational choice v critical criminology
What is quantitative criminology?
Uses numbers/statistics to test hypotheses using deductive reasoning.
What’s the usual logic path of quantitative research?
Theory → Hypothesis → Data → Analysis → Conclusion
What are the 3 steps to measuring crime?
- Define crime
- collect more sources of crime data
- calculate
How is the crime rate calculated?
(Number of crimes ÷ Population) × 100,000
What is ‘offending’ in criminology?
Acts that violate the criminal code and are subject to legal punishment.
What stages of the CJS measure crime?
Citizen reports → Police reports/arrests → Court charges → Incarceration stats.
What are 2 sources of crime statistics?
Police statistics and victimisation surveys
What are victimisation surveys?
self-reporting survey that asks about previous/ current victimisation
How are victimisation surveys collected?
Stratified random sampling by postcode and household.
Therefore same possibility of being chosen for everyone (randomised)
Why are victims surveys beneficial?
Used to fill the gaps of police statistics
What are police statistics
Includes arrests, calls etc
What biases affect police data?
Discretion in arrests, unreported crimes, and selective recording.
What are limitations of victim surveys?
Exclude vulnerable populations (e.g., homeless, prisoners) and rely on memory/interpretation.
What is the “dark figure of crime”?
The amount of crime that goes unreported or undetected.
What was the main aim of McAra and McVie’s study?
To explore the extent, nature, and impact of contact between young people and formal agencies of social control.
