Forensics Flashcards
outline the 4 issues with defining crime
- cultures: definitions can differ cross culturally: crime is socially consructed.
- Age: element of understanding of what is morally wrong is tied to emotional maturity. criminal responibility: Uk : Age 10.
- Historical context: history and social norms change e..g homosexuality
- Circumstance
Name the 3 ways of measuring crime
- official statistics
- police recordings
- offender survings
- victim survings.
How are **‘official statistics’ ** used in measuring crime
- Official statistics are compiled by the Home Office and published annually. They collect data of several elements of crimes reported to the police.
Evaluate official statistics as way of measuring crime
- strengths:
- they enable understanding of crime patterns over time and allow the government to develop crime prevention strategies.
- Easy to access, large datasets
- limitations:
- they underestimate the true number of crimes as many (known as the ‘dark figure of crime’) are not reported to the police.
- Reliability is also an issue as different police forces have different recording rules
How are “victim surveys” used as a way of measuring crime
- ‘The Crime Survey for England and Wales’ (CSEW) record people’s experience of crime over a specific period.
- it is a face-face survey asking people about their crime experiences
Evaluate victim surveys as a way of measuring crimes
- strengths: updated annualy to keep abreast of trends
- limitations: self-report measures such as victim suverys are poor in reliability. Some people are reluctant to report a crime or may lie. Memory issues, not all crimes covered.
- they rely on victims being able to accurately recall the crimes and ‘telescoping’ may occur, where people recall crimes that happened longer ago, distorting the figures.
How are “offender surveys” used in measuring crimes?
- Offender surveys, like the Offending Crime and Justice Survey (OCJS), collect self-reported data from offenders (often in prison) to understand their behaviour and attitudes.
- The OCJS (2003–2006) gathered information on offences, recidivism, and related factors.
- This data helps identify risk factors and informs prevention strategies, like targeted treatment programmes.
Evaluate offender surveys as a way of measuring crime
strengths:
- can uncover crimes that are not reported to the police or recorded in official statistics.
- allows for understanding offender motivations and risk factors
weaknesses:
- lack of validity as offenders may lie, exaggerate, or underreport crimes due to social desirability bias or fear of consequences
- Relying on self-reporting from past behaviour can be flawed due to recall errors, especially when asking about events from several years ago.
Describe offender profiling
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