CCJS 105 NOTES 09 04 Science advances claims racism sexism fascism are all political groups attempting to claim legitimacy through science Establishing facts is the key to winning a debate DEFINITION OF CRIMINOLOGY The systematic study of the process of making law the breaking of law and the reaction to the breaking of law Politics Theory Criminal Justice A Theory explains why something happens Methods are both Quantitative and Qualitative Can we imagine major legislative decisions on health policy without careful consultation of doctors insurance executives and health care administrators How about crime legislation without criminologists Criminologists lack the power to predict events However there has been a decline in crime since 1991 This unexpected plummet made it more difficult to predict these acts Criminologists have been able to discredit certain proposed solutions i e 3 Three Strikes Legislation 1 Boot camps 2 Death Penalty 4 DARE 5 Scared Straight 6 Gun buy backs Ideology def a set of beliefs or values that ALL of us develop usually unconsciously about the way that the world is or ought to be In a democracy we get to shape the policy through voting This is informed by ideology Conservative right punitive and repressive a Pay attention to jail statistics b Tend to enforce the law Liberal left forgiving and rehabilitative a Hug a Thug b Tend to forgive past crimes to improve the environment What is crime The definition is not fixed and unchanging 1 Legal definition nulla peona sine lege 2 Social harm problems loss of clarity victimless crimes Should the field endorse policy solutions The American Society of Criminology has issued a statement against capital punishment Is this an ideological or scientific stance 09 06 Independent Variable IV cause s of Dependent Variable DV outcome question attempting to be explained CORRELATION and CAUSALITY Just because two items happen to be consistently related does not imply a Example my having an umbrella every time it rains doesn t mean I control causal connection the weather Time Element Cross sectional data data collected at only 1 point in time Longitudinal data data collected at more than 1 point in time Level of Analysis Macro societal nations states cities Micro individual To establish causality it is necessary to find a Correlation Temporal ordering Spuriousness must be eliminated Uniform Crime Reports UCR Started in 1930 18 000 law enforcement agencies reporting representing 95 of population 8 crimes listed index crimes homicide rape robbery assault burglary theft arson Result calculated as a rate of crimes population x 100 000 to standardize Includes the Supplemental Homicide Report SHR Very consistent and comprehensive Can compare time and location Despite best efforts difference remain in definitions Measure of police activity rather than crime officially reported crime Limitation of the UCR Subject to political manipulation Hierarchy Rule Ecological Fallacy Underreporting National Crime Victimization Survey Started in 1972 Household survey conducted by Census Bureau Members older than 12 yrs are surveyed via telephone 3 year inclusion 6 month intervals Uses sampling to produce national estimates Eliminates reporting bias Reduces memory decay and telescoping seen in other self report surveys by bounding Covers same region as UCR More crimes reported Misses homicide Series victimization Self Report No political manipulation Uses bounding Excludes business and victimless crimes No middleman report straight to source not to police then computer Problems are that it is primarily data from juveniles As such there is general falsification and memory problems Geographically limited Small sample just taken from one area Interviewer effects data 09 13 12 SCOPE OF CRIME PROBLEM 11 250 000 index crimes in 2007 Murder rate of 6 100 000 is 5x the average rate of other 15 industrialized nations 22 9 million victimizations Violent crime rate nearly 5x that of the UCR Property rate more than 4x that of the UCR CRIME CLOCK Violent crime every 22 seconds Murder every half hour Rape every 6 minutes Robbery every minute Burglary every 15 seconds Theft every 5 seconds MORE ACCURATELY Evening and Nighttime hours have more crime Weekends also have higher rates HISTORICAL TRENDS Comparisons to the 13th century England reveals rates that were 10 to 20x as great as they are today Crime rose markedly in the 60s and 70s Crime fell dramatically beginning in 1991 REGIONAL DISPARITIES Southern states 37 of pop 41 of rapes 45 of assaults UCR The South has the highest rates of homicide The NCVS indicates that the West has the most overall crime however Metropolitan areas have significantly higher crime rates than rural areas Most violent crime with the exception of rape occur in public places No matter how you slice it crime is a male driven phenomenon SEX GENDER The age of crime curve 16 24 RACE AND CRIME AA Compromise 15 of the population but 39 of arrests for violent crime Criminology is beginning to look beyond black and white difference and Self report data undermines confidence in arrest reports however no and approx 50 of homicides including Hispanics political manipulation occurs SOCIAL CLASS AND CRIME Early link was well established using official records Self report data challenges some of this evidence There is an enduring connection between poverty and crime VICTIMIZATION Poor more likely than affluent to be victimized Urban centers have higher rates when including property crime AA Hisp White greatest to least in personal victimization Males more victimized than females Teens have highest rates 09 20 Difficult on Relying on the Legal Definition of Violence Some violence is approved executions War self defense Vigilantism Other types are prohibited Homicide unlawful killing of one human being by another HOMICIDE 80 of victims and 90 of perpetrators are male Most victims 18 24 50 happen in cities 100 000 Most are intraracial Roughly 85 committed by someone other than a family member 25 are victim precipitated Victim Offender overlap arrest records RAPE SEXUAL ASSAULT Nearly exclusively female victim Poor young unmarried non white more likely to be victimized About committed by someone known to victim Slightly more than are reported About 70 of those arrested are white Rates have been declining for last several decades AGGRAVATED ASSAULT unlawful attack with the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury Gun or knife often used
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