Chapter 2 Flashcards
Why it’s difficult to measure crime (3 reasons)
- Transnational crimes are often difficult to detect due to their secretive and multi-jurisdictional nature.
- Transnational crimes are by definition committed across legal jurisdictions – so which government is primarily responsible for detection, enforcement, and prosecution.
- Transnational crimes often extend over a period of time, with detection often only occurring long after the crime is committed.
Why Measure and Compare Crime Data?
Primary reason: To determine risk of crime.
Risk of crime - evaluates the probability that certain crimes will occur and their potential harm. How great is the risk that any person will be victimized by crime?
Crime statistics summarize experience - make it easier to determine whether we live in a safe place, dangerous place, etc. How safe is one country versus another?
Learning more about crime data is important in improving societal conditions, social policy, police policy and procedure, and laws.
Measuring crime and comparing crime data in other countries serve two larger purposes.
1. Collecting data about crime allows us to determine the kinds and extent of crimes reported in any one country and, helps us to distinguish long term patterns from year to year trends.
2. Measuring crime and comparing crime data provides clues as to why some nations are more successful than others in controlling crime rates.
The Historical Background of International Crime Data
General Statistical Congress in Brussels (1853) - first attempt to collect data on crime at the international level.
International Congress on the Prevention and Repression of Crime in London - another attempt to collect international crime data.
The major issue discussed at both of these meetings was how to define certain crimes.
1940’s-1970’s - crime data collection was limited to the International Criminal Police Organization, often called Interpol.
1970 - The United Nations General Assembly developed a survey that would collect information form member countries about crime rates and the operations of criminal justice systems.
The United Nations Surveys of Crime and Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (CTS) - Developed a survey that collected information from member countries about crime rates and the operations of criminal justice systems.
Consists of four parts dealing primarily with statistical information about the main components of the criminal justice system: police, prosecution, courts, and prisons.
Annex - the annex was developed for countries in Europe and requested supplementary information on police-recorded crime statistics relating to homicide and thefts of motor vehicles
Three Perspectives on crime
Police Perspective
Uniform crime reports (UCR) - collected by each police agency in the United States and compiled by the FBI annually. Only counts those crimes reported to the police; crimes not reported are missed. Less than half of all crimes are reported to the police.
The UCR is voluntary - not all police departments report crime data every year. UCR gathers information on a limited range of offenses: Homicide, Rape, Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Burglary, Larceny, MV Theft, and Arson.
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) - collects data on every incident and arrest within 22 offense categories made up of 46 specific crimes. NIBRS developed to broaden the extent and depth of crime data gathered by police agencies. The potential of NIBRS as a national data source has not yet been fully realized.
Victim Perspective
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) - participants are asked questions about their experiences with crime in recent months – voluntary and anonymous.
Annual survey: From 76,000 households including more than 135,000 individuals. Covers six crimes: Rape, robbery, assault, larceny, burglary, motor vehicle theft. NCVS improves our knowledge of the dark figure of crime - amount of crime that occurs which is unknown to the police or the general public. Victimization surveys reveal there is between two to three times more crime occurring than is reported to police.
Offender Perspective
Self Report Surveys - people are asked to report their own delinquent and criminal acts in an anonymous questionnaire or confidential interview. Provide information on victimless crimes. Mostly used with young persons.
International Self-Report Delinquency study (IRSD) compares juvenile rates in 12 European locations and the United States. Shows 80- 90% of juveniles had committed one or a combination of property, violent, and drug crimes.
International Crime Data
Lowest crime rates: Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Germany
Highest crime rates: France and united States (but U.S. by far)
Many countries have some kind of crime reporting system - but there is no standardization between countries. United Nations surveys are the most comprehensive. Response rates from member states are less than 50%. Developing countries are underrepresented.
Developing country - one with a low level of material and social development.
Developed country - high level of development, measured by indicators gross domestic product and industrialization.
Lack of standard definitions of crime among countries plagued comparative researchers for years. Hard to distinguish what is a crime versus what is legal. What a country decides is illegal tells us something about that nation’s social, economic, and political situation.
Why many countries do not participate in the international crime surveys:
Countries are too small - administrative staffs may not be able to handle all the requests.
Countries involved in civil war are not concerned with keeping track of crime problems.
Emerging countries have not developed a system of collection and dissemination of crime data.
Some countries lack technological resources.
Some countries have the resources but refuse because they are concerned that crime data will negatively affect the nation’s world standing or tourist trade.
Interpol - no longer publishes crime statistics because they did not correlate well with crime data generated from the UN.
International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS): Is the best source of international crime data.
Advantages: (1) Avoiding government controlled data collection and screening; and, (2) Use of standard crime definitions within the survey itself.
Collection tool: Computer assisted telephone interviewing, which randomly calls a sample of 800 to 2,000 individuals in each country – depending on country size and logistical issues with such communication and availability of phones.
Surveys incidents both reported and not reported to police.
General Trends in the Data for Participating Countries
The general trend in victimization rates for all 30 participating countries has been downward, beginning in the 1990s, and is roughly the same across all 30 participating countries. ICVS data provided little to no support for country-specific explanations for the drop in crime.
Those countries who engaged in more severe forms of punishment, harsher sentences and more incarceration (U.S. and U.K.), did not experience a sharper drop in crime compared to those countries with more relaxed and less severe punishments.
Victimization rates are 25 to 33 percent higher in large cities than in the countries as a whole. Rates of victimization are higher in cities in developing countries (28.4%) than in developed countries (19.9 %). The five cities with the lowest victimization rates are: Hong Kong, Lisbon, Budapest, Athens, and Madrid.
Sex Related Offenses in the ICVS Data
Sex-related offenses in the ICVS data are asked in a broad way, i.e., responses include offenses far less serious than rape (grab, touch, or assault), but do include rape as well. On average, 1.7 percent of women reported a sexual victimization, a rate that has been dropping across nations, but with a slightly greater frequency, 1.9%, in major world cities.
When sexual offenses are divided into sexual assault (rapes, attempts, indecent assault), sexual assaults occur at a rate of 0.6 percent on average. Cities in developing countries have higher rates of sexual assault (1.2%).
Taking all sexual offenses together, victims knew their offenders about half the time. In those cases where the victim knew the offender, the offender was: Colleague or boss (17%), Ex-intimate partner (11%), Current intimate partner (8%), and Close friend (16%).
Summary of ICVS Data
International victimization surveys provide the best available information about crime rates internationally: Include both reported and unreported crimes and use uniform definitions of offenses on standardized polling forms.
Data reveals that only about half of crimes are reported to the police.
What is criminal in one country may be acceptable behavior in another, such as prostitution, adultery, fornication, and homosexuality.
