What is Criminal Justice? 1/21 The Crime Picture 1/23 Flashcards
What is the difference between Criminology and Criminal Justice?
Criminology is concerned with explaining why individuals engage in criminal behavior.
Criminal Justice is concerned with explaining how the system works and its effects on behavior.
Explain the Consensus Model of the criminal justice system.
Assumes all components of Criminal Justice system work together towards common goal.
–Process is “smooth.”
Explain the Conflict Model of the criminal justice system.
Suggests the interests in Criminal Justice agencies make actors within the system self-serving.
–Goals of individual agencies conflict with one another.
What amendments does the Due Process perspective derive from?
5th Amendment
6th Amendment
14th Amendment
What does multiculturalism in criminal justice refer to?
“a society that is home to a multitude of different cultures, each with its own set of norms, values, and routine behaviors”
What are the most common concepts that are the most studied in multiculturalism?
Race and Ethnicity
What are the problems with crime statistics and social policy?
- Social events, including crime, are complex and difficult to quantify.
- Bias of policymakers
- Public opinion is misguided by the media reports.
What is the Crime Index within the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR)?
The summation of occurrences of the 8 crimes based on the population.
What are the 8 offenses within the Crime Index that UCR identifies or what are known as Part I offenses?
- Murder
- Rape
- Robbery
- Aggravated Assault
- Burglary
- Larceny
- Motor Vehicle Theft
- Arson
What does UCR stand for?
Uniform Crime Reporting
What does NIBRS stand for?
National Incident-Based Reporting System
What is the goal and purpose of NIBRS?
To enhance the quality, quantity, and timeliness of crime data collection by law enforcement.
The NIBRS is NOT a separate report, rather, it is the new methodology to the UCR program.
What were the enhancements of the UCR/NIBRS that the traditional UCR did not have?
The UCR/NIBRS features:
- Reports ALL offenses, not just the most serious offense.
- Consists of individual incident record for the 8 major crimes AND 38 other offenses.
- Includes details on offense, victim, offender, and property involved.
- Distinguishes between attempted and completed crimes
- Records rape of BOTH males and females, not just females.
- Restructures definition of assault.
- Collects weapon information for ALL violent offenses, not just murder, robbery, and aggravated assault as provided in the UCR.
- Provides details on arrests for the 8 major crimes and 49 other offenses.
Are Part II offenses recorded in the number of crimes reported or in the number os arrests.
Part II offenses are recorded in arrests, not crimes reported.
TRUE/FALSE
Part II offenses are generally more serious than those that make up Part I offenses.
FALSE
Part II offenses are generally less serious than those that make up Part I offenses.
What are some of the problems with UCR/NIBRS?
- Only list crimes reported to law enforcement agencies (i.e., under reporting)
- Only takes information from law enforcement, not courts.
- Bias in reporting some crimes.
- Race and classification are skewed.
- Some law enforcement agencies do not report to the FBI.
What does the NCVS stand for?
The National Crime Victimization Survey
What is the “dark figure of crime”?
Crime not reported to the police.
TRUE/FALSE
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is based on self-reports, rather than police reports.
TRUE
Why was the NCVS designed?
Partially as a response to the problems with the UCR, to combat the dark figure of crime not reported in the UCR, and it was designed to estimate the occurrence of all crimes.
What detailed information is asked when reporting to NCVS?
- Victim characteristics
- Extent of injury or loss
- Relationship to offender
- Whether or not crime was reported to police
What are the problems with the NCVS?
- It is limited in scope. It is only interested in a small number of crimes which represents only a tiny fraction of all crimes committed.
- Interview data may be unreliable
- Several bias’ may occur:
- Memory errors
- Telescoping
- Errors of Deception
- Sampling error
- Over-reporting crimes that law enforcement may consider unfounded.
- Under-reporting of crime
Why are crimes under-reported in the NCVS?
- False or exaggerated reports.
- Unintentional inaccuracies.
* Memory problems/May not remember the exact details - Forgotten crimes
Of the 8 Part I offenses, which offense is the smallest in occurrence?
Murder
What the problems with the crime definition?
Society is complex and changing; the definition is too simple and broad.
TRUE/FALSE
From 1920-1945 crime decreased.
FALSE
From 1920-1945 crime increased due to the increase of organized crime and prohibition.
During the 1980s there was a significant increase in what type of crime?
Drug crime
TRUE/FALSE
During the years 1993-2000s, violent and property crime steadily declined.
TRUE
What years had a relatively stable crime rates?
a) 1992-1993
b) 1945-1960s
c) 1970s
d) 1993-2000s
b) 1945-1960s
The UCR/NIBRS non-negligent murders were included in the reported statistics except for which three murders?
- Attempts
- Suicides
- Justified Homicides
What is the goal of the criminal justice system?
Justice
What is Social Justice?
Notions about cultural beliefs about right and wrong.
What is conduct in violation of the criminal laws, where is there is no legal justification or excuse?
Crime
What does Due Process emphasize?
Individual rights
What does the Crime Control model emphasize?
Arrests and convictions
What does the 5th Amendment represent?
Grand jury; Double Jeopardy; Self-Incrimination
What does the 6th Amendment represent?
Right to an attorney; jury trial
What does the 14th Amendment represent?
All states must recognize due process rights.
