defining and measuring crime

Question 1

What are official statistics

Answer 1

official statistics are figures based on the numbers of crime that are reported and recorded by the police which are used by the government to inform crime prevention strategies.

Question 2

What is one criticism of official statistics

Answer 2

-Official statistics have been criticised as unreliable in that they significantly underestimate the true extent of crime. Some commentators suggest that so many crimes go unreported by victims or unrecorded by police that only around 25% of offences are included in the official figures. The other 75% make up what criminologists refer to as the ‘dark figure’ of crime.

Question 3

What study was done on official statistics

Answer 3

One study found that police in the borough of Nottinghamshire were more likely than other regions to record thefts of under 10 pounds and this explained a ‘spike’ of thefts in the area which suggests that policing priorities may distort official figures.

Question 4

Why are cultural issues a problem in defining crime

Answer 4

What is considered a crime in one culture may not be judged as such in another. In the Uk having more than one wife is the crime of bigamy. However this is not a crime in cultures where polygamy is practiced. In 2014 forced marriage was made illegal in the UK yet is still practiced in other cultures.

Question 5

Why are historical issues a problem in defining crime

Answer 5

One issue of defining crime is that definitions of crime change over time, for example it was perfectly legal to smack your child in the UK before 2004, now it is against the law and public attitudes and perceptions have also changed.

Question 6

What are Victim surveys

Answer 6

Victim Surveys such as the Crime Survey for England and Wales selects 50,000 households randomly and asks them to document any crimes they have been a victim of in the past year.

Question 7

Why have victim surveys been criticised

Answer 7

Victim Surveys rely on respondents having accurate recall of the crimes they have been a victim of. This is an issue as ‘telescoping’ may occur where a victim may misremember an event as happening in the past when it did not which can be due to trauma. This may distort the figures.

Question 8

What is good about victim surveys

Answer 8

victim surveys could be higher in validity than official statistics as victims are more likely to report trivial offences in these surveys, things they wouldn’t go to the police with, as they might think it a waste of time.

Question 9

What are Offender surveys

Answer 9

Offender Surveys involve Individuals volunteering the number and types of crimes they have committed. These tend to target groups of likely offenders based on ‘risk’ factors such as previous convictions, age, social background etc.

Question 10

Why have offender surveys been criticised

Answer 10

Offender surveys lack validity as offenders are unlikely to be truthful about the real extent of their own criminality. It may also be that they can’t accurately remember how many crimes, they have committed and exactly when they took place.

Question 11

What is offender profiling

Answer 11

This is a behavioural and analytical tool that is intended to help investigators accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminals. It is based on prior experiences and uses computer databases to analyse what is already known.

Question 12

What is the top-down approach

Answer 12

The phrase top-down refers to an approach, which starts with the big picture and then fills in the details. The Top Down of FBI approach relies on previous experiences of crimes.

Question 13

What is the top-down approach based on

Answer 13

In the 1970’s the FBIs behavioural Science Unit gathered data from 36 sexually motivated serial killers, including Charles Manson & Ted Bundy to develop this approach to Offender Profiling.
In 1980 Hazelwood and Douglas published their account of the ‘lust murderer’, they advanced a theory that lust murderers are mainly catergorised by two types: - Organised and disorganised. This is an example of a top-down typology.

Question 14

What are the characteristics of an organised offender

Answer 14

An organised offender leads an ordered life and kills after some sort of critical life event. Their actions are premeditated and planned, they are likely to bring weapons and restraints to the scene. They are likely to be of average to high intelligence and employed.

Question 15

What are the characteristics of a disorganised offender

Answer 15

A disorganised offender is more likely to have committed the crime in a moment of passion. There will be no evidence of premeditation and they are more likely to leave evidence such as blood, semen, murder weapon etc. behind. This type of offender is thought to be less socially competent and more likely to be unemployed

Question 16

What is one criticism of top-down profiling

Answer 16

Top down profiling is reductionist as the classification system (organised/disorganised) is too simple. Offenders are not simply either disorganised or organised. It may be that there are both organised and disorganised features to all their crimes. An offender may start off being disorganised and become more organised as they develop their method.

Question 17

What is another criticism of top-down profiling

Answer 17

Alison et al (2002) argues that this approach is based on out-dated theories of personality being stable. External, situational factors can be a major influence on offending and they are constantly changing

Question 18

What is the bottom-up approach

Answer 18

A bottom-up approach which starts with small details and creates the big picture. No initial assumptions are made about the offender and the approach relies heavily on computer databases. It can be the little details that are often overlooked that can be crucial to the success of a case.

Question 19

What is investigative psychology

Answer 19

Using computer databases and a programme called Smallest Space Analysis, patterns are identified and it is possible to see if a series of offences are linked

Question 20

What is geographical profiling

Answer 20

This is a technique first described by Kim Rossmo in 1997. It uses information to do with the location of linked crime scenes to make inferences about the likely home or operational base of an offender.

Question 21

What is meant by interpersonal coherence in investigative psychology

Answer 21

Central to this approach is the concept of interpersonal coherence this means the behaviour of the offender at the time of the crime will be comparable to what they’re like in everyday life. Degrees of violence used in serious crimes, especially rape, may reflect how the criminal treats other women in his non-criminal life.

Question 22

What is Canter’s circle theory in geographical profiling

Answer 22

Geographical Profiling is used to make inferences about where an offender is likely to live. This is also known as crime mapping.
Canter’s Circle theory (1993) proposed two models of offender behaviour. Offenders are classified as either marauders (commit crimes close to home) and commuters (travel away from home to offend).

Question 23

What evidence support is there for geographical profiling

Answer 23

Evidence supports geographical profiling Lundrigan & Canter (2001) collated evidence from 120 murder cases and found that the offender’s home base was invariably located in the centre of the crime scene pattern

Question 24

What is the Atavistic form

Answer 24

A biological approach to offending that attributes criminal activity to the fact that offenders are genetic throwbacks or a primitive sub-species ill-suited to conforming to the rules of modern society. These individuals are distinguished by particular facial and cranial characteristics.

Question 25

What did Lombroso suggest

Answer 25

Lombroso suggested that criminals were ‘throwbacks’ who had biological characteristics from an earlier stage of human development that manifested as a tendency to commit crimes. Lombroso claimed that criminal types were distinguishable from the general population because they looked different.

Question 26

What was Lombrosos study

Answer 26

Lombroso examined the facial and cranial features of hundreds of Italian convicts both living and dead. He examined the skulls of 383 dead Italian criminals and 3839 living ones and found that 40% of them had atavistic characteristics.

Question 27

What did Lombroso consider to be atavistic features

Answer 27

Large jaw, forward projection of jaw, low sloping foreheads, high cheekbones, flattened or upturned nose, handle-shaped ears, large chins, very prominent in appearance, hawk-like noses or fleshy lips, hard shifty eyes, scanty beard or baldness, insensitivity to pain, long arms and tattoos!

Question 28

What is a criticism of the atavistic form

Answer 28

Critics such as Matt DeLisi have drawn attention to distinct racial undertones within Lombroso’s work. Many of the features identified such as curly hair and dark skin are most likely to be found among people of African descent.

Question 29

What is a second criticism of the atavistic form

Answer 29

Causation is an issue. The physical differences Lombroso discovered were much more likely to be the result of other factors such as poverty, poor diet, illness and disease

Question 30

How has Lombroso made a contribution to criminology

Answer 30

His theories represented the beginning of offender profiling and modern forensic science. Lombroso did also champion the use of the scientific method by using an evidence based approach to research, doing hundreds of observations and measurements. Therefore Lombroso definitely made a major contribution to the science of criminology.

Question 31

What is a neural explanation

Answer 31

Any explanation of behaviour in terms of functions/dysfunctions of the brain and nervous system. Includes activity of brain structures such as hypothalamus and neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.

Question 32

Outline the neural explanation of offending

Answer 32

Evidence has suggested that there may be neural differences in the brains of criminals and not criminals. Evidence in this area has investigated individuals with antisocial personality disorder. APD is associated with reduced emotional response, a lack of empathy for others and is a condition that characterises many criminals.

Question 33

Outline one study that has investigated a neural explanation of offending

Answer 33

Raine studied 41 violent offenders and compared the activity in their prefrontal cortex to 41 non-criminals (including 6 schizophrenics) using PET scans. The violent offenders showed significantly less activity in prefrontal cortex than the other participants suggesting less control over impulsive behaviour.

Question 34

Outline the genetic explanation of offending

Answer 34

Genetic explanations for crime suggest that would-be offenders inherit a gene or combination of genes, that predispose them to commit crime.

Question 35

Outline one study that has investigated a genetic explanation

Answer 35

Christiansen (1977) looked at 3586 twin pairs in Denmark a 52% concordance rate for criminality was found for monozygotic (identical) twins, compared to just 22% for dizygotic (non-identical) twins.

Question 36

What is a limitation of the biological approach

Answer 36

Early twin studies of criminality, such as Lange’s research were poorly controlled and judgements related to zygosity were based on appearance rather than DNA testing and therefore

Question 37

What is another limitation of the biological approach

Answer 37

The approach shows biological reductionism as reducing criminal behaviour to a genetic or neural level makes the approach overly simplistic. Although crime does appear to run in families so does emotional instability, mental illness, social deprivation and poverty. This makes it hard to separate the effects of genes and neural influences from other possible factors.

Question 38

How is the biological approach determinist

Answer 38

determinism is when behaviour is predictable by internal and external factors, the biological approach is biologically deterministic as it states that people have an innate predisposition that can result in them being more likely to act out criminal behaviour which they have no control over. The finding of a criminal gene suggests individuals are more likely to commit crimes if they carry it and this can lead to diminishing responsibility (not agents of our own freewill) and struggles in the workplace and legal system

Question 39

What is the diathesis-stress model

Answer 39

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Question 40

Why is anger management a successful approach

Answer 40

Anger management is an eclectic approach it uses a cognitive approach in stage 1, behavioural in stage 2 and social in stage 3. This recognises that offending behaviour is the complex interaction between social and psychological factors.

Question 41

Why might anger management not be a successful approach

Answer 41

Anger Management is very expensive and time consuming as it required highly skilled therapists. Also, the prisoner must be motivated and want to change. Many prisons not be able to fund such programmes and it will not work on prisoners who are uncooperative and apathetic.