Chapter 2: The Nature and Extent of Crime

What aspect of self-report surveys impedes their validity?

The potential non-honesty of self-report survey respondents.

Declining deviance as part of the aging out process results from:

Youth growing more mature.

What is the relation of the concept of early onset to crime?

Youth who have been exposed to a variety of personal and social problems from an early age are the most at risk of repeat offending throughout their life.

What is a career criminal?

an offender who persistently engages in criminal acts

Persistence

The idea that those who started their delinquent careers early and who committed serious violent crimes throughout adolescence are the most likely to persist as adults.

What is the foundation of racial threat hypothesis?

A fear of growing minority populations results in greater police action against them.

Career criminals

A person who repeatedly violates the law and organizes his or her lifestyle around criminality.

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

A program that requires local police agencies to provide a brief account of each incident and arrest within 22 crime patterns, including incident, victim, and offender information.

Self-report surveys

A research approach that requires subjects to reveal their own participation in delinquent or criminal acts.

Systematic review

A research technique that involves collecting the findings from previously conducted studies, appraising and synthesizing the evidence, and using the collective evidence to address a particular scientific question.

Cleared crimes

Crimes are cleared in two ways: when at least one person is arrested, charged, and turned over to the court for prosecution; or by exceptional means, when some element beyond police control precludes the physical arrest of an offender (for example, the offender leaves the country).

Expressive crimes

Crimes that have no purpose except to accomplish the behavior at hand, such as shooting someone.

What can primarily serve to limit co-offending in a community?

Developing more opportunities for youth employment in economically depressed communities.

When did violent crime rates peak in the United States?

Early 1990s.

Police Superintendent McCarthy (video case) hopes to combat and decrease gang retribution killings. What type of violence do these killings constitute?

Expressive.

What limits the effectiveness of gun control such as requiring waiting periods and limiting the sale of guns?

Few guns used in crimes are sold new to criminals.

In what way does Superintendent McCarthy's (video case) plan suggest the use of predictive policing?

He intends to target specific neighborhoods that have high crime rates.

What do the early 2012 crime statistics cited in the video (video case) suggest?

High homicide rates are concentrated in the city.

Which of the following groups could be used in a specific cohort study?

The graduating male class of a particular high school.

Which of the following might result in rising crime rates, specifically among the youth in coming decades?

Increasing automation of manufacturing and service jobs at the expense of human workers.

How can crime mapping primarily serve to benefit the Chicago Police (video case) Department in dealing with gang violence and homicides?

It can allow the police to better address specific problem neighborhoods with more resources.

Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

Large database, complied by the FBI of crimes reports & arrests made each year throughout the US.

Should police be more cognizant of ecological factors that impact crime in determining where and when to deploy police resources? Why or why not?

Police should be more aware of the ecological factors that can affect the crime in their jurisdiction. It is important to make note of the patterns of crime that happen during different ecological factors because this can help predict and prevent similar crimes. An example stated is more crime generally happens during warmer weather, so if police looked at these factors or even other kinds of factors they can work prevention. It is always better to have more knowledge about the outcomes that can happen and be better prepared.

What is data mining?

Police use advanced software to identify crime patterns and link them to suspects based on behavior patterns.

Three strikes

Policies whereby people convicted of three felony offenses receive a mandatory life sentence.

Income inequality

The unequal distribution of household or individual income across the various participants in an economy.

Part 2 crimes

All crimes other than index and minor traffic offenses. The FBI records annual arrest information for part 2 offenses.

Population

All people who share a particular personal characteristic, such as all high school students or all police officers.

Which of the following would be considered an instrumental crime?

An individual threatens another with a knife to hand over their wallet.

Part 1 crimes

Another term for index crimes; 8 categories of serious, frequent crimes.

Which of the following is true for liberal feminist theories regarding crime?

As women move closer to men in social and economic position, their crime rate will increase.

In a typical city, what is often true of crime?

High rates of crime are concentrated in specific areas.

What is true concerning homicide rates in the world?

Homicide rates tend to be higher in developing countries.

Instrumental crimes

Offenses designed to improve the financial or social position of the criminal.

In which of the following scenarios can crime mapping benefit police?

Police are uncertain as to where they should deploy more officers to counter crime.

Liberal feminist theory

Theory suggesting that the traditionally lower crime rate for women can be explained by their second-class economic and social position. As women's social roles have changed and their lifestyles have become more like those of men, it is believed that their crime rates will converge.

Why do the police officers (video case) suggest that parents take greater responsibility over their children?

To prevent children from being harmed by limiting exposure to dangerous situations.

What is a primary goal of predictive policing?

To provide police with information so that they can proactively deploy resources.

Meta-analysis

A research technique that uses the grouped data from several different studies.

Cohort

A sample of subjects whose behavior is followed over a period of time.

Retrospective cohort study

A study that uses an intact cohort of known offenders and looks back into their early life experiences by checking their educational, family, police, and hospital records.

Predictive policing

A technique that relies on data mining's ability to predict future crime using large data sets and geospatial technologies.

Early onset

A term that refers to the assumption that a criminal career begins early in life and that people who are deviant at a very young age are the ones most likely to persist in crime.

Chronic offenders

According to Wolfgang, a delinquent offender who is arrested five or more times before he or she is 18 stands a good chance of becoming an adult criminal; such offenders are responsible for more than half of all serious crimes.

Why can the figures cited by the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) be misleading?

Police departments vary in the way they record, classify, and report crimes.

Can the use of secondary sources of crime data serve to improve the efficiency of a police force at minimal cost? Explain and provide examples.

Secondary sources of crime data can improve the police force at minimal cost. Secondary sources are information taken from journals, studies, and other sources that can be useful to police forces at little to no cost. For example there are many resources that can be found if someone takes the time to do so. Money does not have to be poured into new research when secondary sources are readily available and just require some digging to find the information that is useful to the problem at hand.

Sampling

Selecting a limited number of people for study as representative of a larger group.

Racial profiling

Selecting suspects on the basis of their ethnic or racial background.

During which season would it behoove police on foot patrol in a major U.S. city to be on greater lookout for property crimes such as pickpocketing?

Summer.

Cross-sectional surveys

Survey data derived from all age, race, gender, and income segments of the population measured simultaneously. Because people from every age group are represented, age-specific crime rates can be determined. Proponents believe this is a sufficient substitute for the more expensive longitudinal approach that follows a group of subjects over time to measure crime rate changes.

A systematic review:

Synthesizes the findings of past studies to make a conclusion.

Index crimes

The 8 crimes that, because of their seriousness and frequency, the FBI reports the incident of in the annual UCR. Index crimes include murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, arson, larceny, & motor vehicle theft.

In what way is the NIBRS intended to be more explanatory than the UCR?

The NIBRS requires reported crimes to be put into greater context.

Racial threat hypothesis

The belief that as the percentage of minorities in the population increases, so too does the amount of social control that police direct at minority group members.

Chivalry hypothesis

The idea that low female crime and delinquency rates are a reflection of the leniency with which police treat female offenders.

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.

Aging out

The process by which individuals reduce the frequency of their offending behavior as they age. It is also known as spontaneous remission because people are believed to spontaneously reduce the rate of their criminal behavior as they mature. Aging out is thought to occur among all groups of offenders.

Continuity of crime

The view that crime begins early in life and continues throughout the life course. Thus, the best predictor of future criminality is past criminality.

What is continuity of crime?

The view that criminality starts at an early age and remains throughout life.

Masculinity hypothesis

The view that women who commit crimes have biological and psychological traits similar to those of men.