Week #3: Lec - Risk Factors Flashcards
What do we know about offenders?
- Official record correlates
- Self report correlates
- Risk and protective factors
- Criminal careers research
What do we know about victims?
- victim survey correlates
- victimization clusters
Correlates of Offending based on Official Records
- Age
- Gender
- Race/ethnicity
- Class
What role does age play in crime?
- crime involvelment peaks, 16-24
- Property crime in the united states peaks at age 16, and drops in half by age 20
- Violent crime arrests peak at age 18, and drops in half in between 25-30
- Robbery is violent crime in US, it’s property in Denmark
What role does gender play in crime?
- Violence, women very low
- rape 496.7 ratio
- shoplifting 1.4, women exceed 4x
- certain crimes are women oriented
What role does race/ethnicity play in crime
- Blacks arrested for much more crimes than Whites
- Self report surveys in 70s shows these relationships were exaggerated, Denmark immigrant self report
- Asked kids whether they commit crimes, and show a lot less stronger relationships of race
- When you look at self report survey data almost no difference between blacks and whites, doesn’t show as big a difference but shows difference of violent crime higher for blacks
- No significant difference in Danish and immigrant youth crimes in self report but higher arrest of immigrants
- Maybe frequency would be different, but it mirrors US
- Big difference in official records, barely any difference in self report
What role does social class play in crime?
- A lot of criminology theory is based on the idea that crime, or the propensity to commit crime is because people are poor
- A lot of 20th century sociological theories start to creep up in 1930’s in the midst of the depression
- This idea was so obvious to everyone that a lot of theories were built around it, but social class is less obvious than one would think
- It also depends on how you measure (Margret Farnsworth) looked at 35 different measures of self-report
- When measuring kids you are looking at social class of parents
- You can measure class in prestige, income etc.
- Class can be measurement on individual level and neighborhood level
Explain self-report surveys
- Technique used since mid-1950s
- Surveys of (usually) high school students
- If crime peaks at this age, interest in getting them while the action is happening
- Ask about their own offending/ drug use during:Past month,Past year, Ever
- Don’t ask technical questions like did you commit robbery, they as did you take something with threat of force
- This data was used heavily in 50’s 60’s to test theories of crime
What are the pros of self-report surveys
- Provides a look at hidden crime
- Can’t get this from official documents
- How is life at home? Does your mom love you? Do your peers engage in criminal behaviour?
- Provide a wealth of demographic and attitudinal correlates of criminal offending and drug use
- Wealth of info in self report surveys
What are the problems with self-report data?
- Only as good as the (random, representative) sample
- Only generalizable to (usually) high school students
- Selective non-response, You don’t get all kids in these school settings, one’s who aren’t present, kids playing hookie who are probably engaging in crime more then
Under-estimation
- Forgetting
- Fear of legal reprisal (despite promise of anonymity)
Over-estimation
- ”Telescoping”
- Exaggeration: Baddest mutha in town
List 2 important criminological datasets evaluating risk and protective factors?
Philadelphia Birth Cohort Studies - 1945
NYS - National Youth Survey
What are risk factors?
Risk factors predict increased probability of a negative outcome, e.g., heart attack; offending; drug use
Idea borrowed from public health
What are the 5 broad risk factors/ domains?
individual, family, community, peers, school
What is the difference between risk factors and correlates?
In correlate you think there is definitely a causal pathway, risk factors can be measured very early
What are protective factors?
can reduce the probability of negative outcomes
Is there a relationship between early offending and peer influence?
Certain domains are important earlier than others
- Like community and family,
- Later you come into school and they come together
2 ideas of delinquent peers
- People are more likely to learn crime, helps you do crime, and causes your crime
- Its not causing it but people who commit crime just are more likely to be friends with each other
List the strongest correlates of adult offending
based on self-report surveys
Age (16-24)
Male gender
Prior criminal/antisocial behavior (and age of onset)
Delinquent friends
Drug abuse
Low intelligence/school failure
Parental neglect and/or harsh erratic discipline
What does proof of causality require?
correlation
temporal order
non-spuriousness
What are the strongest correlates of adult victimization?
based on self report surveys
exact same as offending
victimization and offence peak at the same age
What is lifestyle exposure theory?
The probability of victimization varies by time, place and social setting.
An individual’s lifestyle dictates his or her exposure to specific times, places and social settings.
Lifestyle therefore increases or decreases risk of victimization
people out more are more likely to be victimized by assault
The more you drink the more likely you are to be victims of theft, assault etc.
Explain temporal patterns for burglaries in denmark?
Burglary happens Monday-Thursday at 11am, and the weekends at night
Occurs when people are out of the house
This doesn’t show burglar preferences, it shows victim preferences
People victimizing go on schedule of victims
How is victimization concentrated?
demographically
geographically
temporally
among previous victims
