Forensic Pathways: Statistics, Myths and Reality - Lecture 7 Flashcards
What are the two key measures of crime in the UK?
The annual Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and Police recorded crime
What was the CSEW formerly known as?
The British Crime Survey (BCS)
In recorded crime figures for 2013-14 in England and Wales, how many homicides were there?
537
In recorded crime figures for 2013-14 in England and Wales, how many threats to kill were there?
9,357
In recorded crime figures for 2013-14 in England and Wales, how many assault with intent were there?
18,552
In recorded crime figures for 2013-14 in England and Wales, how many assaults with injury were there?
312,632
In recorded crime figures for 2013-14 in England and Wales, how many assaults without injury were there?
224,775
How many violent offences were there in total?
666,696
How many categories of violent crimes are there?
25
What percentage of the total percentage of crimes did these violent crimes make up?
17.93%
What percentage were without injury?
34%
How many rapes of female 16+ were there?
13,445
How many rapes of male 16+ were there?
717
How many sexual assaults on female under 13 were there?
5,161
How many sexual assaults on male under 13 were there?
1,686
What was the total number of sexual offences were there?
66,805
How many categories of sexual assualt are there?
22
What percentage of the total percentage of offences were sexual offences?
1.8%
How many controlled drugs were trafficked?
28,871
How many people were found in possession of drugs (excluding cannabis)?
33, 569
How many people were found in possession of cannabis?
129,390
What was the total number of drug offences?
192, 925
How many categories of drug crime are there?
4
What was the percentage of drug offences out of the total percentage?
5.3%
How many burglary, theft and vehicle offences were there?
1, 817,621
What percentage did burglary etc make up of total percentage?
48.9%
How many face-to-face interviews have the CSEW had with adults 16 and over since 2009?
34,906
How many face-to-face interviews have the CSEW had with 10-15 year olds and over since 2009?
2,902
What is the representative rate for adults and children?
75% response rate for adults and 68% for children
What are these participants asked?
About their experience with crime in the preceding 12 months and their attitudes towards crime, perception of crime and anti-social behaviour.
What is so important about this survey?
It includes NOT reported crimes so a better indicator of violent and sexual crimes.
Where do certain offender group stereotypes derive from?
TV programmes, books and films
What do longitudinal studies show?
That most juvenile crime is ‘adolescence limited’
What did the Cambridge study do?
Studied 411 boys of 8/9 years old (still ongoing). Found that 20% were convicted under 18 and about 40% were convicted by 40.
Compared these and those not convicted.
What did they reveal about those convicted?
That there existed predictive factors
What are the 6 predictive factors?
- Antisocial behaviour (eg. trouble at school)
- Hyperactivity (eg. impulsivity, attention deficit)
- Low intelligence and poor school attainment. 4. Family criminality (parents/siblings)
- Family poverty (eg. low income, poor housing, large family)
- Harsh parenting style (eg. parental conflict, lack of supervision)
Moffit (1993) argued that there are three offender groups. What are they?
- Adolescence-limited
- Life-course persistent
- The abstainers
When do adolescence-limited offend?
Between puberty and adult status
Why do adolescence-limited offend?
Due to the maturity gap and peer social context and delinquency serves to demonstrate autonomy and affiliation
What are characteristics of AL offence?
It is generally group orientated activities, relatively minor, status-orientated. Have healthy personalities, average/good reading skills. Return to non-delinquent behaviour, unless delayed by snares (drugs, unwanted pregnancy)
What are typical characteristics of LC P?
Begin antisocial activity earlier, more active in criminal behaviour, diverse in offending, unlikely to desist, more likely to be lone offenders.
What are triggers?
Peer influences not necessary, assumed to rely on subtle innate neuropsychological differences, environment contributes (poor relations), infiltrates all aspects of life so little chance of reform.
What percentage of the population do LC P make up?
5-8%
What typology was described by Kaye, Darke and Finlay-Jones (1998) in the context of excessive drug users?
Primary and Secondary anti-socials
What did they study?
They studied 400 methadone uses in community and prison.
Who are primary anti-socials?
Those where drug use followed criminal behaviour - they were younger, more likely to be male, had committed more violent crimes and are twice as likely to have anti-social personality disorder.
Who are secondary anti-socials?
Those who use drugs before any criminal activity
What is nature classed as?
Innate, biological characteristics
What is nurture classed as?
The environment, family and peers.
What 6 things come under nature?
- Impulsivity
- Neurological abnormalities, delayed motor development at 3
- Low IQ and reading ability
- Poor scores on neuropsychological tests of memory
- Hyperactivity
- Slow heart rate
What 7 things come under nurture?
- Teen-aged single parents
- Mothers with poor mental health
- Harsh or neglectful parents
- Harsh or inconsistent discipline
- Many changes in primary carer
- Poverty and low SES
- Rejection by peers.
What do we have to be careful about?
The fact that the effects are difficult to separate. Eg. poor neurological functioning might be a result of abuse NOT innate biology.