Introduction to Forensic Psychology (Forensic Psychology)

Question 1

Crime

Answer 1

an act committed in violation of the law where the consequence of conviction by court is punishment (especially a serious punishment such as imprisonment)

Question 2

Problems with defining crime

Answer 2

-cultural: Forced marriage was made illegal in the UK in 2014, however it is practiced in other countries
-Historical: Homosexuality is still illegal in many parts of the world and was only made legal in the UK in 1967. A parent’s right to smack their child was outlawed in 2004.

Question 3

Crime as age relative

Answer 3

• to be a crime, an action must be deliberate and with intention
• under 10s cannot be arrested or charged with a crime because they are not considered fully responsible for their actions

Question 4

Three ways of measuring crime

Answer 4

• official statistics: the crimes reported to the police and recorded in the official figures that allow the government to formulate prevention strategies and police initiatives. These are published by the Home Office as a ‘snapshot’ of the number of crimes committed across the country

• victim surveys: the public’s experience of crime over a particular period. 50,000 households are randomly chosen to report on the crimes that they have been a victim of in the past year and this is complied in the Crime Survey for England and Wales

• offender surveys: individuals self report on the types of crimes that they have committed. The Offender Crime and Justice Survey was the first national self-report of this kind; it aimed to identify trends in offending and the relationship between perpetrators and victims.