Defining and measuring crime

Question 1

What is crime?

Answer 1

Criminal behaviour can be defined as an act that violates the criminal law.

Criminal law requires that there has been an act (actus rea – guilty act) against the person, property, or failing to act.

Also, for an act to be criminal needs to be carried out with criminal intent (mens rea – guilty mind)

Because what is and isn’t crime changes over time the crime is considered to be ‘socially constructed’

Question 2

What are some ways to measure crime?

Answer 2

1. Official crime police records
2. Self-reported surveys (of ppl who have offended)
3. International comperative data
4. Local surveys (to report the criminal activity in your local area)
5. Victimasation survey (asking ppl if they have been victims of crime)

Question 3

How to define coercive control?

Answer 3

It is a behaviour in an intimate or family relationship which causes someone to fear that violence will be used against them on at least 2 occasions;

or causes them serious alarm or distress which has a substantial adverse effect on their usual day-to-day activities.

Question 4

When did coercive control become part of the legal system?

Answer 4

In 2015! in Serious Crime Act
but does not work retrospectively :c

Issue: the verdict in court may be depending on a judge
The behaviour wish counts as coercive have to repeat (and proven to be repeated) at least 2 times to 1 time incidents are still considered “acceptable”.

Question 5

How to define coercive control?

Answer 5

It is a behaviour in an intimate or family relationship which causes someone to fear that violence will be used against them on at least 2 occasions;

or causes them serious alarm or distress which has a substantial adverse effect on their usual day-to-day activities.

Gov. definition: it is an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim

Question 6

What behaviour counts as coercive?

Answer 6

Isolating a person from their friends and family
Monitoring their time (online or irl)
Taking control over their everyday activities, where they can go, how long for, with whom.
Placing threats.
Financial abuse and control.

Question 7

Errors with crime definition

Answer 7

All the ‘parts’ of the definition can be fulfilled but the person may not be of age to hold criminal responsibility

The state of mind can negate the responsibility (e.g. ID or Psychosis)

There can be a case of a crime but no criminal intent (manslaughter).

There can be an intent to commit a criminal act (on its own would be a criminal act but b.c. of circumstances it is not) but not deemed a crime (self-defence)

Question 8

Issues with the defintion of crime

Answer 8

1. Doesn’t mention why the act is criminal
2. Not all phsyical acts are classified as crime in all contexts
3. Depending on country different things can be ‘legal’ e.g. cannabis- illegal in the UK, legal in the USA or being gay
4. Killing sb can be lawful (e.g. self-defence) or wars are ‘special cases’ allowing a crime
5. The definition seems to be both the the foraml definition and the resposne to crime (circular definition)
6. Separates the criminal process from social context

Question 9

Social harm approach

Answer 9

1. Approach to encompass behaviours bad for people across life-span
2. Includes harm casued on a larger scope (e.g. by corporations)
3. ‘Harmed comunity’ introduced

Question 10

Defintion of harm

Answer 10

Damage to physical health, meantl/emotional health or finantial/econodmiacal harm, must ecomapss ‘cultural safety’

Question 11

Issue with defintion of harm

Answer 11

Social harm is no more defining than crime;
it too lacks an ‘ontological reality’- so that the context and existance is not always falling under different categories.

Question 12

Breif history of mearusing crime

Answer 12

First Crime statisitc of England and Wales published in 1897

Maguire (2012) reports that there has been explosure in data about criminal behaviour.

Question 13

3 types of police records

Answer 13

1. Records of indictable (karalne) offences e.g. murder, menslaughter, rape, robbery [can only be tried by a Jury at Crown Court]
2. Summery offences (minor criminal offences): can only be trield by Magistrates
3. Offences triable either way: go to either court initially seen by Magistrate who decides which way things go

Question 14

What typs of police recorded data are reported?

Answer 14

The majority are the indictable crimes and the ones which can go either way, few summery offences.

Statistical records are limited to crimes deemd notifiable offences.

Info recorded is sex and age.

Question 15

What influences a crime to be included in the stat?

Answer 15

1. The act is perceived as criminal
2. The crime is reported
3. The police decided about it being criminal

Question 16

What icluences reporting a crime?

Answer 16

• Embarassment
• Lack of trust in police
• The crime is seen as ‘too small’
• The age of perpetrator
• Relation to the offender
• Fear
• Behaviour highy tolerable in the society
  There is a bias on who is more likley to report and who and what is more likely to be reported (some groups are more likely than others)

Question 17

What icluences recording a crime?

Answer 17

• Resolving issue in the crime scene
• Wanting to ‘clear-up’ crime records - e.g. political reasons
• More recording to argue for need for more resources needed
• The police sees as trivial
• The victims statement is not believed

Question 18

Victim Surveys ‘Crime Survey for England and Wales’ (CSEW) = ‘British Crime Survey’ (BSC)

Answer 18

• Representative of private hourseholds across the UK with ppl over 16.
• Anaully repeated in ~40 000 households
• Asking if they have been a vicitum of a crime in the past 12 months (interviews)
• Self-report on computer about usage of illicit drug use and domestic violence (not included in the stats)

Question 19

Advantagues of CSE/ (BSC)

Answer 19

1. Give records on unreported and unrecorded crime
2. Allows for comparison over time.
3. Gives idea on what type of crimes are not reported
4. Shows the dicruptency between official police records and the experienced levels of crime
5. Data is not affected by changes in legislation on what counts as a crime and what gets to be reported

Question 20

Disadvantagues of CSEW/ (BSC)

Answer 20

1. Does not include a lof to crimes (e.g. crimes to those under 16, sexual offenses, murder, commercial and corporate victims, fraud or dealind drugs)
2. Subject to sampling error
3. Educated people more likley to report being victims
4. Reporting bias (if households are known) + memory is not perfect, the recollection of events can be distorted.
5. The ‘crimes’ reported are not officially crimes so can’t be sure that they are actually crimes

Question 21

Local survyes

Answer 21

• Argue that the BSC, whole national statistic is not usufull becuase the crime will differ locally
• Focus on inner-city areas
• Found that differences in risk of victimisation between groups and even greater differences between sub-groups

Question 22

How good are self-reported measures?

Answer 22

Concurrent validity [how good a measure correlates with other estbalieshed measure of the same concept] (compare it with external criteria of offending) – generally good (Jolliffe et al. 2003). However, people who have an official record may be more willing to report it (as it is recorded already)

better test is predictive validity. Farrington (1973) measure of self-reported delinquency at age 14 and found that it predicted probability of conviction 3 years later predicted later court referrals in Pittsburgh study (Farrington, 1996)