crime and deviance measurements and definitions Flashcards
crime
a legal wrong followed by legal proceedings
deviance
behvaiour which is disapproved of by most people in society
social construction
created ad defined by society
relative
vary according to time, society and circumstances
social order
conformity to the shared norm and values, society ispeaceful and predictable
official crime statistics
produced from police, coruts and prison records
crime survey for england and wales
csew - a victim survey which aska people bout their experiences of crime
police recorded crime figure - strengths
- easy to access
- up to date and standardised
- representative of population
police recorded crime figures - limitations
- undetected/unrecorded
- ‘dark figure of crime’
- varying accuracy
- public perception changes
- police discretion
dark figure of crime
includes rimes which are unrecorded
mumsnet 2012
83% of those whove been raped/sa went unreported
- embarassed due to low conviction rates
- 70% media is unsympathetic to women whove been raped
police discretion
individual officers may be corrput which comprimises accuracy
functionalist view on police stats
- measuring social behaviour scientifically
- uses ‘typical criminal’
new right view on police stats
- accept typical criminal
- laws are made to benefit society
left realist view on police stats
should be supplemented by other methods like victim surveys
feminist view on police stats
females commit less crime than males
marxist view on police stats
tool used to control the working class and to justify their oppression
interactionist view on police stats
- social construction of statistics
- police labelling
radical cirminologists view on police stats
police labelling for political reasons
victim studies
csew - afce to face structured interviews
- representative 35k adults and 3k children per year
- respondents asked about personally experienced crimes
limitations of victim studies
- victimless crimes
- 16+ in the past
- overall trends are an estimate
- respond rate is 75%
islington crime survey
1/3 of all households experiencesserious crimes and unemployment issues
- 28% felt unsafe in homes
islington crime survey - young 1988
higher rate of female victimistion, non reporting of domestic offences
islington crime survey limitations
- dark figure of crime is present
- ## response rates
islington crime survey limitations
- dark figure of crime is present
- response rates
- overestimation of crime as non vicitms wont see point of taking aprt
self report studies
involves asking people about their offences
- focused on youth and minor crimes
- police stats overemphasise w/c men involvement in crimes
the cambridge study - self report
followed cirminal careers of 411 south london
- boys aged 8-32 in 1961
the edinburgh study - self report
longditudinal study of the offending careers of 4000 young people
issues of self report studies
validity
attrition
ethics
validity issues
participants may conceal offendings
- 2% of uncovicted boys claimed to be convicted
- young males admit that they are convicted but older males dont
west and farrington - validity issues
age 18 - 94% of convicted boys admitted they had been convicted
attrition issues
participation and drop out rates
- difficult participants to find
- high attrition rate is missing frequent offenders
ethical issues
informed consent
confidentiality
right to withdraw (edinburgh study)
