CRIME EXAM 1
When did victimology emerge?
1970s
Wolfgang's study
6% of offenders, the chronic offenders, commit 1/2 of all offenses, and 3/4 of all serious offenses.
Self-Report Surveys (SRS)
A research approach that requires subjects to reveal their own participation in delinquent or criminal acts.
Methodology
A system of practices, techniques, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline.
inductive reasoning
A type of logic in which generalizations are based on a large number of specific observations.
Types of criminal offenders
Adolescent-limited offenders and chronic offenders
Part II Crimes
All other crimes reported to the FBI; these are less serious crimes and misdemeanors, excluding traffic violations. Like prostitution, battery, drug violations, etc.
Highest rate of victimization for what ethnic group in school?
American Indian/Native American, then mixed race
NIBRS (National Incident-Based Reporting System)
An incident based reporting system that collects data on every single crime occurrence. - details on crime incidents - gets rid of hierarchy rule - acknowledges victims, social context, location etc. - implemented fully in 2021 in place of UCR, but only 43% reported
Why can't we predict future trends in crime
Base predictions on demographic projections, rely on past circumstances and relationships, and our theory and understanding is still rudimentary.
Racial distribution of Crime
Black people are disproportionately arrested for serious crime (UCR), and victims disproportionately perceive offenders as Black. 13.4% of population 37.5% of criminal arrests.
Strict Liability Crimes
Certain crimes, such as traffic violations, in which the defendant is guilty regardless of her or his state of mind at the time of the act.
conflict perspective
Claims the economically powerful define what crime is and what is criminal, primarily to protect their own economic interests and social class position. (Criminalization of not just act but actors)
Crime rate
Crime count/population * 100,000
Why are there different definitions of crime?
Crime depends on the time-space and social context surrounding it. Can't have a single universal definition because it is a socially constructed phenomenon.
Why is crime a moving target?
Crime is a moving target because the definition of crime is subjective as human societies are diverse and dynamic. Ex. Crimes can become criminalized or decriminalized over time.
Integrated definition of crime
Crime is an act that violates the rules set by society for appropriate behavior as expressed in criminal law which reflect the majority opinion, are influenced by the struggles between groups about morality in cultural tradition and are disproportionately shaped by economically and politically powered groups
Constructionist Perspective
Crime is socially constructed and reconstructed as interest groups in society struggle against one another to have their own ideas of morality be chosen. FLUDITY OF DEFINITON OF CRIME
How is crime different from deviance?
Crime means a violation of law, while deviance involves a violation of any norm
Relationship between crime rates and the degree of urbanness
Crime rates higher in more urban places because density and opportunity (anonymity), concentration of disadvantage, social disorganization, lower collective efficacy, and weakened informal social control.
Age distribution of crime.
Crime rates highest for teens and young adults. Property crime peaks at 16, violent crime peaks at 18. Possible explanation desistance.
Trends of property and violent crimes since 1930s.
Crime rose between 1930 and 1960 Rose sharply in 1960 PC peaked in 1980s VS peaked in 1991 Both sharply declined in 1990s Crime rates continued to fall through mid to late 2010s
The dark figure of crime
Crime that is not reported to the police and that remains unknown to officials.
What is crimonology?
Criminology is the systematic study of law-making, law breaking and the social reaction of law breaking.
Workplace violence: government vs. private sector
Decline 82% for government, 72% for private sector. White collar crime explains difference.
Two major consequences or costs of victimization
Economic - losses by victim and incurred by society Medical- care due to violent crimes which require after-care/hospitalizaition
What does the PHSC do
Ensures the health, safety, and welfare of every individual participating in studies on campus. (Potential benefits > potential risks, rights not infringed, participation voluntary and can be withdrawn, informed consent)
Narrative data on crime
Field based studies that collect qualitative data. Offers deeper insight into individuals who commit crime but doesn't help with counting crime.
Under what circumstances can crime vary?
Geography - different states or countries Severity - ounce of weed vs pound Social context- self defense Age of offender Position of offender Medical conditions
conspiracy crimes
Guilty mind but not guilty actions
Where are human trafficking victims most commonly taken from and where are they trafficked to?
Human trafficking victims are commonly taken from poor, less developed countries with corrupt law enforcement, but it occurs everywhere. Victims are often trafficked to more developed countries.
Conceptualization
Identifying or making concepts we use (hypothesizing)
Data from the School Associated Violent Death Surveillance System (SAVD-SS) tell us what about recent trends in multiple-victim youth homicide?
It has increased.
Data from the School Associated Violent Death Surveillance System (SAVD-SS) tell us what about recent trends in single-victim youth homicide?
It has remained stable.
Lead theory
Lead leads to brain damage which can increase criminality
What may limit accuracy of self-report crime survey data?
Limits on SRS include honesty, exaggeration ,recall difficulties, confusion and misinterpretations, trivial offenses, and selection effects exclude chronic offenders.
unobtrusive methods
Methods in which research respondents do not have to be disturbed for data to be gathered.
According to NCVS data, how common is the non-reporting of crime to the police? For which crime types is non-reporting the greatest? For which crimes is non-reporting the lowest?
More crimes go unreported than reported; less half of violent crimes and only a third of property crimes get reported. Violent crime is more likely to be reported, especially aggravated assault, while property crime has lower rates of report with the exception of motor vehicle theft.
Most workplace homicides are committed by whom? What method of killing is most common in workplace homicide? How does the prevalence of this method of killing in the workplace compare to the prevalence of this method of murder in our society more generally?
Most homicides committed by robbers and other outside assailants. Most workplace homicides are committed with guns - 80% of workplace homicides, 68% of non-workplace.
What crime has the highest clearance rate?
Murder; 61.6%
Levitt four factors related to crime drop
Number of police, rising prison population, receding crack-cocaine epidemic, legalization of abortion
cleared by exceptional means
Occurs when the police are unable to place formal charges against an alleged offender, for example, because the offender is dead, a victim refuses to cooperate, or extradition is denied
Theory
Plausible explanation of observed reality
Which occupations have high levels of workplace violent victimization?
Police officers, correction officers, security guards and bartenders.
According to Bill Chamblis... homicide in New York
Police wanted to look more effective than they were and stopped correctly recording homicides to appear as if the rate was declining.
Two reasons some people seem predisposed to repeated victimization experiences.
Population and persistent heterogeneity (traits/individual differences) and state dependence (social experience/cumulative continuity)
Recent trends from NCVS
Property crime is down but violent crime is slightly up; homicide is up more significantly.
Robert O'Brien argued that police crime recording practices could affect crime trends observed in the UCR data. Explain.
Robert said that police unintentionally contribute to recording error due to varying efficiencies
How common is non-reporting of violent crime?
Roughly 51% of crime is not reported
How does the evidence of race differences in criminal offending differ for self-report data compared to the UCR data? For which crime type is the evidence of racial difference greatest?
Self-report data suggests smaller race differences than UCR or NCVS. Strongest difference for violent crime.
Who is Henry Fielding and what role did he play in the development of criminology as a discipline?
Sherman calls Fielding "the first social scientist of crime to publish in the English- and perhaps any- language". He lived from 1707-1754 and conducted experiments with justice in London in 1753 and was not the first to propose a salaried police force, but he was the first to conduct an experiment testing that invention.
What cities have more crime than Chicago (top 2)?
St. Louis and Baltimore
Profile for most likely crime victim
Teen/Young adult, single or seperated, male, african american, lower income
How prevalent is teachers being threatened by students?
Ten percent of teachers threatened by students, six percent are attacked.
Sources that helped create victimology?
The NCVS, the BCS, and the ICVS.
What region has the highest rates of assaultive violence? Why?
The Southern region of the US. This is due to the honor of landed gentry, the herding economy, the Scots-Irish, the legacy of slavery, and the gun 'birthright'
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
The ongoing victimization study conducted jointly by the Justice Department and the U.S. Census Bureau that surveys victims about their experiences with law violation.
Three features of a classic experiment
The three features are two comparison groups, equivalence by random assignment, and the variation of IV before measurement of DV
Routine Activities Theory
The view that victimization results from the interaction of three everyday factors: the availability of suitable targets (vulnerability, grafitiability, and antagonism) the absence of capable guardians, and the presence of motivated offenders.
Explain the two possible explanations for racial differences in arrest rates considered by the authors. For which explanation do they find support from their study?
They considered that the disproportionately high arrest rate for black citizens could be explained by racially biased law enforcement practices or differential criminal participation in reported crime. They found evidence for differential participation by blacks in crime.
What two hypotheses do they present as potential explanations of the shrinking male-female gap in arrests? Which of these hypotheses is best supported by the evidence they examine? How do they determine which hypothesis is supported (i.e., what is their evidence)?
They propose the behavior change hypothesis (changes in social structures and gender roles) and the policy change hypothesis (elasticity of violence definitions, broadness of UCR violence categories, and variability in gender/violence relationship depending on content). They conclude that there has been no meaningful or systematic change in women's involvement in crimes or interpersonal violence and in the gender gap during the past couple of decades. They concluded this based on (1) UCR trend data showing little or no change in the gender gap in arrests for homicide, (2) UCR and NCVS trend data showing no change in the gender gap for rape/sexual assault, and (3) NCVS data showing little or no change in female levels of assault and in the gender gap.
Sex/gender difference in crime
Total index crime ratio: 2.7:1 Violent crimes more likely to be male than property crimes, particularly murder and rape.
Why is the distinction between victim and offender often blurred? What is the victim-offender overlap?
Two kinds of victims: involved and not involved. Many of the factors that lead to being victimized can also lead to being a victimizer. Thus, overlap.
Superpredators
Ultraviolent youth who experts at one time predicted would further drive up the nation's crime rate
Hiearchy rule
Used to facilitate counting crime, this rule ranks crimes from least to most serious. In a criminal incident, only the most serious crime committed during the incident is counted
Compare the prevalence of "lifetime contact sexual violence" for males and females, according to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey.
Victimization rates for females are 43.6% and males is 24.8%.
Using 2017 NCVS data, compare victimization rates of people 12-18 in school and out-of-school.
Victimized more in school than outside of school but both on the decline over the past few decades.
Important crimes not included in UCR data
White collar frauds, tax evasions, and illegal waste dumping
Workplace vs non workplace violence
Workplace violence is equivalent to about 5 workplace violence per 1000 employed persons, while non-violent is 16 per 1000.
Workplace violence trends in comparison to society
Workplace violence trends are also down.
Code of ethics
a formal statement of ethical principles and rules of conduct; necessary to protect rights of subjects
meta-analysis
a procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies
participant observation
a research method in which investigators systematically observe people while joining them in their routine activities
case studies
a research method that involves the intensive examination of unusual people or organizations
content analysis
a systematic analysis of the content rather than the structure of a communication, such as a written work, speech, or film
Experiments
a technique that tests predicted relationships among variables in a controlled environment
Uniform Crime Report
an official measure of crime in the United States, produced by the FBI's official tabulation of every crime reported by more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies (1929)
Lifestyles theory
certain lifestyles or behaviors place people in situations where victimization is likely to occur (high risk location, time, behavior). Aimed to explain higher risk for poor, unmarried black men.
Criminality
characteristics of individuals and their subsequent willingness to commit crime.
Mala in se crimes
crimes that are illegal because they are bad in themselves or inherently wrong by nature - murder, rape, robbery
Mala prohibita crimes
crimes that are illegal because they are prohibited by law - time and place bound - drug use, gambling, prostitution
What are the index crimes? Which is often omitted from discussion?
criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. ARSON often omitted
Five methods of criminology
experiments, surveys, participation observation, case studies, and unobtrusive methods
law of crime concentration
for a defined measure of crime at a specific micro geographic unit, the concentration of crime will fall within a narrow bandwidth of percentages for a defined cumulative proportion of crime
mens rea
guilty mind/criminal intent
actus rea
guilty/criminal act
Felonies vs. Misdemeanors
misdemeanor - a minor crime, typically punished by a fee or less than 1 year in jail. felony (or high crime) - a major crime, typically punished by 1 year or longer in prison or the death penalty.
Measurement issues in NCVS
misses data from victimless crimes, homicides, business or organization victimization, crimes against youth under 12, and faulty memory. Plus, misclassification of crimes
Measurement
procedures for data-gathering (surveys)
What information does the NCVS provide that is missed in the UCR?
provides details on incident, and gets information on unreported crimes
Deductive reasoning
reasoning in which a conclusion is reached by stating a general principle and then applying that principle to a specific case (The sun rises every morning; therefore, the sun will rise on Tuesday morning.)
surveys
research in which a representative sample of people are asked (often anonymously) questions about their attitudes or behavior
Levitt NOT contributing factors
strong economy, changing demographics, better policing strategies, gun control laws, concealed weapon laws and capital punishments
secondary analysis
the analysis of data that have been collected by other researchers
Validity
the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to
Reliability
the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting
clearance rate
the percentage of crimes known to the police that they believe they have solved through an arrest; a statistic used to measure a police department's productivity
Victim Precipitation Theory
the view that victims may initiate, either actively or passively, the confrontation that leads to their victimization. Helps explain more violent crimes, especially murder and assault.
Consensus Perspective of Crime
theories that assume that virtually everyone is in agreement on the moral codes and behavioral norms of society, so criminal law simply follows those norms. (Crime reaffirms unity (9/11))
Gottfredson and Hirschi
variation by place, time, and crime is lawlike -- consistent and persistent. No social things go along with age, so no theories explain it. Not fans of longitudinal research.
