Measuring Crime Pt.2

Question 1

What is a Self-Report Surveys

Answer 1

Questionnaires from respondents about offences they have committed.

Goal: capture information about crimes that may not have come to the attention of the police.

Question 2

What were the findings from research on Self-report surveys Porterfield (1943):

Answer 2

overrepresentation of lower-class individuals may have less to do with their levels of criminality and more to do with issues pertaining to policing practices.

Question 3

What are some problems with the self-report survey

Answer 3

1. Participants may not divulge information. (Not trusting of “anon” survey)
2. Intentional deception (lying to impress friends)
3. Unintentional deception (bad memory)
4. Not having representative samples (not everyone is there)
   Surveys do not ask questions about more serious forms of crime.
5. Surveys do not ask questions about more serious forms of crime.

Question 4

Benefit of self-report survey

Answer 4

Can produce valid and reliable findings if consideration is given to issues of sampling and to the challenges inherent in deception

Question 5

What is the General Social Survey (GSS)

Answer 5

-collects information on the victimization experiences of individuals

• 15+ , random

-criticized for not being able to focus specifically on those populations who may be the most vulnerable to crime.

Question 6

Limitations with the GSS :

Answer 6

-Dependent on the ability of respondents to accurately place their experiences proper time frame
-Unable to collect info about crimes with no clearly identifiable offender

-Excludes:
1. data such as homicide
2. those under the age of 15