Module 3: Defining and Measuring Crime

Question 1

how are wrongs categorized in legal definition of Crime

Answer 1

criminal law
regulatory offence - offences but nor deemed criminal
civil wrongs

Question 2

Legal definitions of crime

Answer 2

needs to consider both acts of omission and acts of commission

Question 3

Police data

Answer 3

statistics tend to reflect reported offences, offences reports to police or detected by police

results in dark figure of crime

Question 4

Dark figure of crime

Answer 4

some crimes go unreported and undetected
some crimes are more likely to be reported like Bulgary
some are too difficult to detect and more likely to not be reported ( sexual offences, fraud, drug offences)

Question 5

Court Data

Answer 5

how many arrests and charges by police

most offences finalized by magistrates court

Question 6

Corrections Data

Answer 6

tells characteristics and sentences of defendants who have received a court imposed sentence

Question 7

Administrative Data

Answer 7

readily available

dont take into account the measures of dark figure crime

Question 8

Alternative sources of crime

Answer 8

help quantify dark figure of crime

victim surveys
offender self reports
population surveys
observational data

Question 9

Victim Surveys

Answer 9

show how many people have been victimised and whether it was reported to police

estimate time and extent of crime

Question 10

Offender Self Reports

Answer 10

of convicted offenders

assists in quantifying unreported and undetected offences

Question 11

Population surveys

Answer 11

assist in understanding how many people commit crime, types and frequency of offending, characteristics of offenders

Question 12

Criminal Law categories

Answer 12

crimes against: 
property
person
state
morality 
public order

more agreement on property or person crimes
less agreement on morality, state amd public order crimes