L4 counting crime Flashcards
canadian crime stats
- important way to learn of the preponderance of crime.
- strengths and weaknesses of canadian crime statistics
- cautious about crime stats from other countries too
4 controversies over counting crime
coverage: how can we obtain reliable and valid data on the scope and nature of crime?
validity: does the tool actually measure crime?
reliability: how consistent are the results
methodology: do the methods used to count crime hold up under critical analysis
three dominant ways to count crime or describe crime patterns + trends.
- official (police-reported) stats
- victimization survey
- self-report studies
sources of official crime data
cjs produces enormous amount of raw data
- CCJS: collected info on crime that has been reported by police since 1960’s. division of Stats Can.
report crime using UCR
what is UCR?
uniform crime reports: measure of incidence of crime.
- only stuff that’s reported to police
- uniform , nation-wide used to collect and count data
what is the seriousness rule re: UCR?
if there are several crimes, reported in one incident, only the most serious crime is counted.
- deflated total crime rate
- increases violent crime as a proportion of the total
- problems with scoring seriousness (not all crimes in same category created equal)
police-reported crime rates
- total
- property
- other crimes
- violent crimes
*internet
peak in total crimes around 1992.
lowest = violence crimes, property crimes are second to total crimes.
internet is used by pretty much everyone. gives rise to serious crimes that often go undocumented, undetected + victims don’t report.
gross counts of crime
a count of the total amount of crime in a given community making no distinction between crime categories
Ouimet report - increase in total convictions..
total convictions for all criminal offences in canada increased by 2500% betwen 1901-1965.
– most due to summer offences, like traffic that were increasing in popularity
CSI
crims severity index
- shows severity of crimes within country
- addresses high volumes of crime due to less serious offences.
- give each offence a weight derived from sentences given by criminal court
- more serious the sentence, the greater the weight
- the more serious offences have a greater impact on the severity index
police-reported crime severity indexes
violent crimes decline similarly to total crimes. overall crime severity decreases over time.
steps to get statistic after crime happens (2 ways)
- noticed by public; perceived as crime; someone notifies police; police designate as crime; police write report
- witnessed by police; event designated to be a crime; decision to write report
calculating the crime rate
number of crimes/ population X 100,000 = crime rate
the crime funnel
- more offenses than are reported
- more reported than convicted
- more convicted than charged.
1% of the crimes are sentenced to custody
5 disparities in knowledge of crime incidents
- report sensitive
- police sensitive
- definition sensitive
- media sensitive
- actual crime trends
what is report sensitive:
whether we know about them or not if due to victim’s willingness to report
what is police sensitive
whether we know about them or not depends on police enforcement
definition sensitive
legislative changes
- legal/illegal
- decriminalized gambling
media sensitive
hear about through media
- influence
actual crime trends
why criminologist idea of crime is differnt than other ppl’s view
what is the dark figure of crime?
most dangerous part is unseen.
- crime funnel
1993 victimization survey
90% of sexual assaults
53% of robberies and 70% of perceived violent criminal incidents were not reported to police
correctional stats
number of ppl incarcerated
- highly reliable
- assists with planning for future (cost, new infrastructure)
- can give info on who commits crime
victimization surveys
- understanding of nature of crime + victimization compared to UCR data (who is being victimized + how much)
- useful in ID-ing categories of people most at risk (young)
- dispel misperceptions
who is most victimized?
ages 20-24 who are single, young, no full-time job, living active social life.
limitations of victimization surveys
- not all crimes captured (homicide victims)
- consensual crimes are generally not captured (buying illegal drugs, escort/prostitution)
- not captured when victim is unaware of victimization (didn’t know they were victims - lost wallet when it was stollen)
- depend on ppl’s memory, truthfulness
- survey data may be skewed
self-report studies
people who know most about crime are those who break th elaw
- self-report, ask populations of their own background in crime.
- capture incidence when not police-reported
- contributes to demogrpahic info of crime
limitations of self-report surveys
- some groups underreport (may not be forthcoming. law-abiding more likely to talk; if more stigmatized - less likely to admit
- respondents report minor infractions and downplay more serious infractions
- memory fade; telescoping
difficulty to survey serious, chronic offenders
what is memory fade?
forget that things happen
what is telescoping
recall event as happening much more recently than it did
research ethics in self-report surveys
have to keep things confidential.
- laws + personal ethics may counteract.
