Week 2: Counting Crime

Question 1

Who collects official crime statistics

Answer 1

Law Enforcement Agencies

Question 2

Limitations of Crime Statistics (5)

Answer 2

1) Only captures a fraction of the so-called dark figure of crime; crime that remains unreported, unrecorded, and largely unknown
2) Are generally offense - rather than offender or victim-focused
3) Only covers a limited range of crimes
4) Issues in the counting of offenders vs offenses
5) Changing classifications of certain crimes

Question 3

What must happen before a criminal event is recorded?

Answer 3

A criminal event occurs
The person must recognize an event as a crime
The person must report the event to the police
If the police are called, they need to decide if they will respond
If the police respond, they have to decide to write a report

Question 4

What is the Crime Funnel?

Answer 4

A model indicating that the actual total quantity of crime is much higher than the decreasing proportion that is detected, reported, prosecuted, and punished

Question 5

What is Crime Mapping

Answer 5

Using official statistics to generate maps that visually represent the spatial distribution of crime

Question 6

Problems with Crime Mapping

Answer 6

1) Only street crimes that are reported to the police are represented
2) Impact on the privacy of victims
3) Spatial labeling

Question 7

What is Spatial Labeling

Answer 7

When an area is labeled as ‘high crime’ a certain stigma gets attached to the area

Question 8

Predictive Policing Maps

Answer 8

Runs data through an algorithm to forecast crime
Identifies hotspots that have a high probability of a crime occurring in a given time frame
Information is the distribution of police resources
The goal is to stop a crime before it happens or while it is in progress

Question 9

What is a Victimisation Survey?

Answer 9

Interview a sample of a population and ask them questions about their experiences of criminal optimization

Question 10

How often does StatsCan conduct a Victimization Survey

Answer 10

every 5 years

Question 11

Strengths of Victimization Surveys (4)

Answer 11

1) Largely overcomes the non-reporting and non-recording problems associated with official statistics
2) Helps estimate the size of the gap between reported and unreported crime
—Generally captures 3-5 more crimes than captured by official means
3) Directs attention to the experiences of victims
4) Less subject to political and policy biases

Question 12

Limitations of Victimization Surveys (5)

Answer 12

1) Not all types of crime are captured
2) Not all types of people are captured
3) Some crimes don’t have victims
4) Fallibility of Memory (memory decay, telescoping)
5) Reluctance to answer honestly

Question 13

What is a Self-Report Survey

Answer 13

Interviewing a sample of a population and asking them a series of questions about their involvement in committing criminal or delinquent acts

Question 14

Self Report Surveys: Typical Format…

Answer 14

How many times in the last year have you_____

Question 15

Strengths of Self-Report Surveys (4)

Answer 15

1) Avoids problems of non-reporting and non-recording associated with official statistics
2) Provides insight into offenders’ motivations for committing crimes and techniques they use
3) Reveals levels of involvement in crime according to sex, age, race
4) Useful for exploring changes in patterns of offending over the life course

Question 16

Limitations of Self-Report Surveys (3)

Answer 16

1) Sampling Problems (difficult to get hard-core criminals in the sample)
2) Types of crimes included (focus on low-level crime)
3) Honesty of answers (some may lie for varying reasons)

Question 17

2 Main Methods of Measuring Crime

Answer 17

1) Routine collecting of data by LEAs
2) Surveying people

Question 18

What are Uniform Crime Reports

Answer 18

Departments provide information on a limited number of crimes which are collected by the FBI

Question 19

What are the two parts of Uniform Crime Reports

Answer 19

1) Coves index offenses, generally use as the basis for assessing annual crime rates (Criminal homicide, Forcible rape, Robbery, Aggravated Assault, etc)
2) includes matters such as other forms of violence (assault and theft, sex offenses, drunkenness, fraud)

Question 20

Limitations of the Uniform Crime Report (3)

Answer 20

1) only covers a limited range of crimes
2) the list of what it covers is mainly focused on street crims or conventional forms of crim (little focus on white collar crime)
3) not compulsory, doesn’t cover the whole country

Question 21

Impact of Legislation on Crime

Answer 21

1) Creates new offenses
2) If new offenses are created, additional statistics are as well
3) New legislation could also make something that was one a crime legal

Question 21

Impact of Legislation on Crime

Answer 21

1) Creates new offenses
2) If new offenses are created, additional statistics are as well
3) New legislation could also make something that was one a crime legal

Question 22

What is Attrition

Answer 22

the action or process of gradually reducing the strength or effectiveness of someone or something through sustained attack or pressure

Question 23

When does crime typically rise?

Answer 23

times of conflict, the war, the depression

Question 24

What is the Offenders Index?

Answer 24

a database that contains the official criminal histories of people who have been convicted in a criminal court of in what are called standard-list offenses