Nature and Extent of Crime Flashcards
What are the fear statistics from the 2009 General Social Survey?
90% of people felt safe walking alone in neighbourhoods at night, 83% were not worried about staying home alone in the evening, 58% felt safe using public transport at night.
What are some of the 2014 crime rates?
1.8 million crimes were reported to the police (3% decrease from 2013). 21% were considered “violent,” 79% deemed “non-violent. Severity of crime has also decreased substantially.
When was the “summer of violence” and when did crime actually peak?
1995, but peak of crime was actually 1991.
What were the rates of violent crime in 2014?
Over 369 000 violent criminal code violations.
What are property crimes and what are the rates of them?
Committed with the intent to acquire property without violence or the threat of violence. 88% of property crimes are mischief, theft under 5000$ or fraud.
What are some other significant crime rates?
Prostitution (biggest decline, -48%), decrease in counterfeit (-10%). Largest increase was terrorist offenses and child porn (39 and 41 percent).
What is “net widening?”
A criminology term when things in the criminal code are too vaguely defined (ex: terrorism laws).
Whaet are crime stats based upon and are they accurate?
Frequently based upon reports to the police, self-reports, and victimization reports-none of these are deemed entirely accurate.
What is triangulation?
Using 3 methods to determine crime statistics-if they all somewhat line up, then your data is accurate.
What are CUCRs?
Canadian Uniform Crime Reports. UCR (uniform crime report), system was launched in 1961 and was designed to generate reliable crime statistics, applies standard definitions to all offences.
What is CUCR 2?
Implemented in 1988, fully operational in 92. Collected incident rather than summary data (more details).
What specific kinds of data does the CUCR 2 collect?
Victims age, sex, victim-accused relationship, level of injury, type of weapon causing injury, and/or drug or alcohol use. Also allowed for this type of information on the accused and information on the circumstances.
What are some criticisms against the CUCRs?
Much crime is not reported, weighting of crimes (decrease in some crimes is nullified by an increase in others. Recording problems (MOST IMPORTANT)- for nonviolent crimes, one incident is counted for each incident. For violent crimes, a separate incident is recorded per victim.
How does victimization become a problem with UCRs?
Lack of reporting makes UCR’s seem problematic. 50% of crimes go unreported. 88% of sexual assaults, 77% of household thefts, and 66% of property thefts went unreported in 2009.
How to victimization surveys help?
Help estimate unreported crimes, explain why victims do not report crimes to the police, provide information about the impact of crime on victims.
