Week 1 & 2 - Introduction, Understanding & Measuring Crime

Question 1

Official data

Answer 1

Collected and disseminated by official means such as the government. used to look at crime rates and crime control (ie. policing)

Question 2

Victimization data

Answer 2

Victim surveys conducted to redress some of the problems with official data and uncover the ‘dark figure of crime’

Question 3

Self-reported data

Answer 3

Surveys administered to sample populations that measure, attitudes, beliefs, behaviours and demographic data

Question 4

Dark figure of crime

Answer 4

Figure of unreported crime in the community

Question 5

Qualitative research

Answer 5

Explores new areas of criminology and looks at how people understand and interpret crime

Question 6

Quantitative research

Answer 6

Creates interference about larger populations through statistics

Question 7

What are the main correlates of crime?

Answer 7

• Age
• Gender
• Economy
• Social class
• Race and ethnicity
• Media
• Justice policies

Question 8

What are the main/identifiable crime patterns?

Answer 8

• Day, season, climate

- Regional differences

Question 9

Unofficial data

Answer 9

Data that is not official in nature. Includes victim reports, self reports and other forms of data

Question 10

How types of data is used to measure crime?

Answer 10

• Quantitative data
• Qualitative data
• Mixed methods

Question 11

How is official data recorded, compiled and reported in Australia?

Answer 11

Recorded by the police and complied and reported by the AIC

Question 12

How do criminologists use official data (form)?

Answer 12

• Raw data
• Data per 100,000 or 1,000 people
• As percentage data

Question 13

Mixed method research

Answer 13

Use of both qualitative and quantitative data to explore certain aspects/trends of crime (particularly inter-sectional data)

Question 14

What are some other forms of data?

Answer 14

• Cohort research
• Experimental research
• Observational and interview research
• Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
• Data mining
• Crime mapping

Question 15

What is a crime trend?

Answer 15

A significant change in the nature of selected crime types within a defined geographical area and time period

Question 16

What is a crime pattern?

Answer 16

A group of two or more crimes that are reported or discovered by police that are similar in nature because of a set of conditions

Question 17

What is a correlate of crime?

Answer 17

factors that are related to the increase and decrease of crime

Question 18

Criminology

Answer 18

Body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its scope the processes of making laws, of breaking laws, and of reacting toward the breaking of laws (Sutherland and Cressey, 1939, 1)

Question 19

Crime (formal/legal definition)

Answer 19

Legislative codes that identify certain behaviours as punishable by the state

Question 20

Crime (Social Harm- Sutherland 1949)

Answer 20

Actions that are against the “common welfare of society”

Question 21

Crime (Deviance violation- Durkheim)

Answer 21

Crime is part of the ‘natural’ deviance inherent to all societies with a focus on its social functions

Question 22

Crime (norm violation- Sellin)

Answer 22

Means to analyse and identify a typology of conduct norm violations that could be scientifically verified

Question 23

Crime (human rights violation)

Answer 23

Prosecuting crimes against stateless people and crimes against groups of people conducted by the state as the offender

Question 24

What are the aetiologies of crime?

Answer 24

• crime as sin
• classical criminology
• medical model
• rational choice
• sociology

Question 25

What is the concept of crime as sin?

Answer 25

Crime is equated with sin or transgression. In the west, often with evil, temptation and the devil