Defining Crime

Question 1

Culture

Answer 1

Cultural differences in defining crime as what is considered socially acceptable varies across cultures

Question 2

Age

Answer 2

Ability’s to understand that committing a crime is wrong depends on criminals age
Cultural difference in the age of criminal responsibility eg age of film responsibility in uk is 10

Question 3

Context

Answer 3

Definition of crime changes over time
Something considered a crime in the past may no longer be seen as a crime
Eg homosexuality

Question 4

Circumstances

Answer 4

In order to be seen as a crim, it needs to include 2 elements - Actus reus and mens rea
If there is no actus reus and mens rea the legal system can take the personal circumstances of a individual into account

Question 5

Actus reus

Answer 5

• crime should be voluntary
• the criminal should be in control of what they are doing

Question 6

Mens rea

Answer 6

Individual has to have an intention of committing the crime

Question 7

3 ways of measuring crime

Answer 7

• official stats
• victim survey
• offender survey

Question 8

Officials stats

Answer 8

• the office for national stats (ONS)
• collects data on teh amount of different types of crime
• use police records to collect data

Question 9

Weakness of ONS

Answer 9

• limited as they’re easily skewed by data which is omitted by unreported crimes
• only takes into account the overall number of recorded crimes, does not distinguish between causal crimes being proved guilt and overall number of recored crimes

Question 10

Victim survey

Answer 10

• crime survey of England and Wales (CSEW)
• use face to face survey about ppls experience with crime
• 35,000 Adults and 3,000 10-15yr
• asked whether they have been victims of crime or whether they have committed a crime

Question 11

Offender survey

Answer 11

-offending crime and justice survey - longitudinal survey concduted between 2003 - 2006
- self report report of offending and drug/school use
Scotland
- prisoner annually surveyed about motivation and reason for committing crime

Question 12

Strengths of victim/offending surveys

Answer 12

• useful as they give more accurate details about crimes which may not b included in official stats
• CSEW help police to see which crimes are on the rise and develop more effect strategies to prevent crime/ target offenders
• victim surveys, puck up unreported crimes more accurate than ONS

Question 13

Weakness of self report in victim and offender surveys

Answer 13

• self report prone to social desirability bias
• victims and offenders may not be honest abou being affected by crime/reason of committing crime
• negative affect on validity of method