Topic 9c: Self-report studies Flashcards
gender and self report studies
Self-report studies relating to crime show that:
•Female involvement in criminal activity is not restricted to a few areas. Whilst females do not tend to commit crimes of violence they are involved in a wide cross-section of crime.
•In relation to male criminality, women appear to commit far fewer crimes (also in categories that tend to be traditionally associated with women - shop-lifting).
Campbell’s self-report study found that the ratio of male crime to female crime is 1.5 to 1 rather than 7.1. However, the findings of such surveys are often undermined by over-reporting, under-reporting, ethical problems and the difficulty of finding a representative sample.
All shows women commit more crime that expected.
gender and self report studies eval
Little research has been conducted on the extent to which gender relates to people’s likelihood of telling the truth in self-report studies. The pattern above may relate to the ‘chivalry factor’ where the police may deal more leniently with women than with men. Alternatively it may be that women commit crimes that are less likely to be discovered or reported eg. soliciting.
Social class and self-report studies Chambliss
Chambliss – police bias and social class Self-report studies suggest there may be consistent police bias against working-class delinquents. Chamblis study of two American delinquent gangs from the same area backs this up. The 'roughnecks' were a group of working-class delinquents. Both the police and the community regarded them as a 'bad bunch of boys'. The 'saints', in contrast, came from respectable, middle-class homes. Chambliss claimed the 'saints' actually carried out more delinquent acts than the 'roughnecks, and some of their actions were of a very serious nature. Police frequently do not take middle-class delinquency seriously
Social class and self-report studies Box
Box has reviewed forty such studies on delinquency, conducted in a number of different countries. On the basis of this evidence, he rejects the view presented in the official statistics that working class youths are much more likely to engage in delinquency than middle-class youths. He says, ‘we should be very skeptical of those who continue to argue that delinquency is located at the bottom of the stratification system’.
Social class and self-report studies eval
It may be that the deviance committed by middle class youths (eg. drug use) is less damaging than that committed by the working class (eg. street crime). In this case it makes more sense for the police to concentrate on working class delinquency.
Ethnicity and self report studies
The major study conducted in Britain which expressly pays attentions to the question of ethnicity is the Home Office study by Bowling and Phillips, “Young People and Crime”. Based on a large sample of young people, ‘this study found that ‘white and black respondents had very similar rates of offending (44% and 43% respectively), while Asian respondents- Indians (30%), Pakistanis (28%) and Bangladeshis (13%)- had significantly lower rates’.
This study challenges the widespread view that the rate of offending of Black ethnic groups is higher than that of the White ethnic group. And it supports the suggestion that the rate of offending of Asian groups is somewhat lower.
Graham and Bowling’s study of 14-25 year olds, for the Home Office found that the self-reported offending rates were more or less the same for the ‘white’, ‘black’ and Asian respondents
Ethnicity and self report studies - eval
It may be that youths from minority ethnic backgrounds are less likely to tell the truth in self report studies because of distrust and suspicion of racism of the police and authority figures.
Lea and Young accept that there are racist practices by the police. However, they argue that, despite this the statistics do bear out a higher crime rate for street robberies and associated ‘personal’ crimes by youths of African-Caribbean origin. They explain this by suggesting that British society is racist and that young ethnic minority males are economically and socially marginalised, with lesser chances of success than the majority population. Running alongside this is their sense of relative deprivation.
self report studies eval
- The problem of validity - of course, it is possible that those replying to questionnaires or interviews might not be truthful about the amount of crime they commit, even if they are guaranteed confidentiality. Respondents may exaggerate their delinquencies out of bravado, especially likely with juveniles. Others may under-report due to dishonesty, forgetfulness or paranoia.
- The problem of representativeness - Many self-report studies are carried out in schools and young people – truants may be excluded from the sample, leading to an unrepresentative sample. There are no such surveys on professional criminals or drug traffickers for example.
Intro
Self-report studies use questionnaires or interviews to collect information about individuals, and ask them to admit to the number of crimes they have committed. As well as being asked how often they commit illegal acts, respondents are generally asked details of their social characteristics, social class, race and so on, in an attempt to get round the biases in official criminal statistics. The data collected can then be compared with official conviction rates to discover which offenders are most likely to be convicted.
Conclusion
•The problem of categorization and relevance - a further difficulty is the impossibility of including all criminal acts in the questionnaire or interview. Thus, the researcher has to be selective, which raises problems as to which offences should be mentioned and questioned about and which not. The majority of the crimes uncovered tend to be trivial. •White collar crime is likely to be under represented in self report studies. Crimes committed by corporations will not appear and some middle class individuals may not see their acts as criminal e.g. tax evasion. Other criticism
