Chapter 2 Flashcards
characteristics of population groups, usually expressed in stats
demographics
guy who wrote the Essay on Principle of Population as it Afffects the Future improvement of Society
Thomas Malthus
early investigators of crime rate:
Quetelet and Guerry
Quetelet proposed this law that claimed morality undergoes seasonal variation
thermic law
criminological perspective (early 19th century) seek to uncover correlations between crime rates and other demographic data
statistical school
two major crime surveys in Canada:
uniform crime report survey and victimization survey
revised uniform crime report survey includes data collection of these things:
info on victims, info on accused, info on the circumstances of the incident
what is crime severity index? (CSI)
used in measuring the volume of crime across Canada, accounts for varying degrees of severity that exist between offence types by weighting each according to scale of seriousness
an offence that is closed when police have formally charged a person or when there is sufficient evidence to lay a charge against person even if not apprehended by police
offense cleared by charge
a case in which police cannot or do not charge a person even if they have identified a suspect and have enough evidence to support laying of charge
offence cleared otherwise
what is the clearance rate?
proportion of incidents cleared by charge or otherwise for diff types of offences compared to total number of actual incidents
how is crime rate calculated?
number of reported crimes per 100 000 population
what does crime rate exclude but are included in CSI?
drug offences, traffic violations
CSI has base index value of ___ for the year ___
100; 2006
what is the dark figure of crime?
portion of criminal activity that goes unreported and/or undetected by official sources
what is MSO?
most serious offense, the only thing counted in UCR for a crime of multiple offences
for violent crime, UCR records number of incidents in terms of number of ___ except for ____
victims ; robbery
data collection method requiring subjects to reveal own participation in criminal behaviour
self-report study
shortcomings of self-report study?
accuracy depends on honesty of respondent, more offences respondent has committed the fewer they will admit to, lack of standardized data collection methods
correlations that involve no causal relationship are said to be ____
spurious
variables observed to be related to criminal activity such as age, sex, ethnicity, social class
correlates of crime
static vs dynamic correlates of crime
not amendable to change through direct interventions (age, sex, ethnicity, social class); amendable to change through direct interventions
why the rise in women committing violent crime?
role convergence, feminization of poverty
why the overrepresentation of Aboriginals in CJS?
biased discretion/selective enforcement, socioeconomic inequalities, substance abuse
five primary correlates to delinquency:
1) negative school attachment 2) anti social peers 3) victimization 4) aggression 5) negative parenting
difficulties around researching relationship between social class and crime?
lack of definitional clarity, exclusive focus on young ppl and limiting crime to minor offences, inadequate measurement techniques
