3.2 Self Report Studies Flashcards
What does a self report study involve?
Asking people what crimes they have committed
Self report studies are often carried out on who? Focusing on what?
Young people
Focused on certain types of crime and deviance
What sort of offences are focused on?
Minor ones not picked up in police figures
They may be qualitative such as the jack roller (shaw) consisting of unstructured interviews to build what?
Life history of the criminal giving an insight into criminality rather than measuring crime
Most self reports are quantitative and involve what?
List of offences from which the respondent selects those they’ve committed
The findings of these studies can create a challenge to what?
The typical criminal stereotype reinforces by the stats
Campbell - levels of crime and deviance admitted by females and males were what?
Closer than the stats suggest
Implying the stats overemphasise male involvement in crime
Self report studies are often what in nature?
Longitudinal
What does it mean that self reports are longitudinal?
Follow same participants over a number of years to get an overview
Longitudinal self reports measure variables such as what?
Family background Peers Education Area Gender
The Farrington Caimbridge study followed the crimes of who?
411 boys aged 8-32 from 1961
The Edinburgh study followed the offending careers of who? And what were they focusing on?
4000 youths collecting data for each young person once a year
Focus on gender differences
Why might self reports not be valid?
People concealing offences or making false claims about their offences
How can the validity of self reports be assessed?
Comparing them against recorded arrests and convictions - assessing participants honesty
Validity - west and farrington found what percentage of convicted boys admitted they had been convicted?
94%
