Unit 1.3 Flashcards
What is the ripple effect?
The ripple effect describes how the impact of a crime can affect the offender and their immediate family and/or community. e.g emotionally, physically or financially.
Why do cultural differences or culture bound crimes result in under-reporting?
Public knowledge of these issues are limited at best, and therefore they do not know about the issue and will not report it. In many cases, the victim will be isolated by the community/family and therefore it won’t be seen to be reported.
Define Decriminalization?
This is where a crime may become socially acceptable and no longer is enforced, normally to do with perceived victimless crime e.g small drug offences.
How does decriminalization affect a crimes report rate?
Victimless crime e.g small drug offences. This lack of public interest means it is unreported, and sentences become smaller and smaller, as money and time is put toward bigger issues.
Define Police prioritization and give an example?
When the police prioritize certain crimes to address issues in the local areas. An example in the UK is where the after a reason rise in sexual assault/domestic assault cases, police will prioritize this over a lesser like smaller drug offences.
What are Unrecorded Crimes?
This is where crimes are reported to the police but may not be recorded as a crime. This could cause crime to go unreported which has occurred, and will only add to the issue of unreported crime.
What is Cultural Change?
A cultural change (similar to decriminalization) is where in a country socially/culturally people may not view the crime as an issue and may not report the crime which will lead to more unreported crime.
What is Legal Change?
A legal change is where a crime either goes unreported long enough that it is now perceived as a human right, e.g homosexuality.
Or a new law could be enforced due to an issue which now means the crime is getting reported, as there are legal repercussions.
What is Procedural Change?
The way that reporting crimes has changed to allow people to report them in more ways, the most obvious being to call 999.
However, more recently due to the internet people can report them anonymously or without directly speaking to someone. This will increase the amount of crimes reported as people find it easier to talk about the crime in a safe way.
