Measuring Crime and Victims of Crime Flashcards
List/explain 5 research methods
- direct observation in natural settings (ethnographic research) - done by social scientists, sociologists, etc
- Experimental observations
- police reports
- victimization surveys
- self-report surveys
The Secret Lives of Criminals
Criminal behaviour tends to be secretive in nature
Criminals go out of their way to avoid observation or detection
Uniform Crime Report
“In Canada, police-recorded crime statistics have been collected and published since 1921“
In 1962, Canada implemented the Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
Most common data
Statistics generated by UCR are less than perfect, due to variations in recording and interpreting crime between different police departments
Dark Figure of Crime/Recording
DFC: amount of crime that is not reported to the police, and thus not reflected in the Uniform Crime Report
General Social Survey: two-thirds of crimes are not reported to the police
DFR: amount of crime reported to police but not recorded
General Social Survey
Surveyed 19,500 households across Canada in 2009; surveyed 24,000 households in 2004
Provides information on crimes that victims do not report to the police (estimated to be two-thirds of all crimes)
Also provides reasons why victims do not report crimes to the police
Why do victims not report crime?
- Feel the crimes aren’t important enough
- Think there is nothing the police can do to help
- Deal with the crime in another manner
- Felt it was a personal matter
- Didn’t want the police to be involved
(according to GSS survey)
Crime Funnel
A model indicating that the actual total quantity of crime is much higher than the decreasing proportion that is detected, reported, prosecuted, and punished
Victimology VS Criminology
Victimology: emerging discipline that studies and focuses its approach on victims (uses GSS victimization survey for data).
Criminology: established discipline that studies and focuses its approach on criminals and offenders (uses UCR police-report survey for data)
Primary victims
the most easy to identify because they are directly affected and often physically injured as a result of the event
aka actual victims (direct target) or direct victims (present @ time of victimization/experiences harm)
Secondary victims
witnesses and bystanders who may be psychologically traumatized by witnessing the event
Tertiary victims
family members and friends who were not present at the event, but who may be saddened or worried about the primary victim (or worried about their own well being)
Indirect/vicarious victims
Secondary and tertiary victims
indirect: not immediately affected by victimization, suffers in some way
vicarious: does not experience direct victimization but responds as if they had been directly victimized
Strobl’s Self and Other Victim Classifaction
Perceptions of victimization
Victim status is based primarily on the perceptions of those involved directly in the criminal event
Victim Preciptation
Marvin Wolfgang (1958) studied murder in Philadelphia
victims precipitated their own deaths approximately 25% of the time (might make initial threats or be the first to use violence)
