CCJS105 01 30 2014 The Science of Criminology The Politicization of Science Science is commonly used to advance political claims racism sexism environmentalism and fascism socialism Nearly every ism and ALL political groups attempt to claim the legitimacy of science Establishing facts is the key to winning a debate Criminology the systematic study of 1 the processes of making law 2 the breaking of a law 3 the reaction to the breaking of a law Politics Theory Criminal Justice Is Criminology a Science o Quantitative and qualitative What role does the field play in shaping policy Theory Methods Negligible Can we imagine major legislative decisions on health policy without careful consultation of doctors insurance executives and health care administrators Why does criminology as a science lack credibility o We lack predictive power Ex Crime decline in 1991 However we ve been able to discredit several proposed solutions such as o Boot camps o Death penalty o Three strikes legislation o DARE o Scared Straight o Gun buy backs Several of these programs remain o Ideology a set of beliefs or values that ALL of us develop usually unconsciously about the way that the world is or ought to be o Range of ideology Conservative right punitive and repressive Liberal left forgiving and rehabilitative o In a democracy we get to shape policy through voting which is Problem in creating a science evidence the field is not a science informed by ideology o What is crime Definition isn t fixed or unchanging o 1 Legal definition nulla poena sine lege o 2 Social harm problems loss of clarity victimless crimes The Scope of the Crime Problem Measuring Crime Catching the Wind with a 1970s and late 1980s America has increase in violent and property Sieve crimes o since 1991 has declined steadily 3 major sources of crime statistics o Uniform Crime Reports UCR Local police departments forward info to FBI o National Crime Victimization Surveys Conducted by US Census Bureau and the US Department of Justice o Self report Data Independent researchers Methodological Concepts to consider o Independent dependent variables measured in large social units Dependent homicide rates outcome Location of crime Fear of crime Imprisonment rates Independent ex Ethnic diversity or percentage of population living in poverty causes of Explains dependent variable Race Family life Economic status Gender Correlation and causality Lack of education o Just because two items are consistently related does not imply o Ex My having an umbrella handy every time it rains doesn t a casual connection mean I control the weather Establishing causality Correlation Temporal ordering Spuriousness must be eliminated Cross sectional and longitudinal research designs o Cross sectional at one certain point in time Ex snapshot o Longitudinal information across time Ex Movie film Micro macro level analyses o Macro explains crime rates while micro explains why individuals commit a crime Sampling Research Designs Validity reliability Thorsten Sellin o Early commentator on crime figures who cautioned against the use of court and prison records the value of a crime for index purpose decrease as the distance from the crime itself in terms of procedure increases International Association of Chiefs of Police IACP established a Committee for Union Crime Records procedure for collecting info about the amount of crime across the nation Uniform Crime Reports UCR FBI Crime in the United States o Started in 1930 o 18000 law enforcement agencies reporting representing 95 of population o 8 crimes listed index crimes o results calculated as a rate crimes population x100 000 to standardize o Includes the Supplemental Homicide Report SHR UCR o Part 1 Offenses include those illegal acts considered to be particularly serious that occur with sufficient frequency to provide an adequate basis for comparison Criminal homicide Forcible rape Robbery Aggravated assault Burglary Motor vehicle theft Arson Larceny theft o Part 2 Embezzlement Vandalism Sex offenses Drunkenness Status offenses etc Limitations of UCR o Subject to political manipulation o Hierarchy rule o Despite best efforts difference remains in definitions o Ecological fallacy o Measure of police activity rather than crime officially reported crime Police can create more crime Sources of Crime Statistics o Early Local arrest numbers Court records Media accounts Jail and prison population counts o Contemporary Official reports Victim surveys Self reports National Crime Victimization Survey NCVS o Started in 1972 o Household survey conducted by census bureau o Members older than 12 year are surveyed via telephone o 3 year inclusion 6 month intervals o uses sampling to produce national estimates o Strengths Eliminates reporting bias Problems with survey methodology Memory decay forgetfulness produces downward bias Telescoping over inclusion produces upward bias Solution bounding o Weaknesses Rape question redesign in 1992 produced much higher Cant compare pre and post stats Household survey excludes institutions jails and estimates businesses victimless crimes and homicide not included series victimization rule underestimates crime analogous to the UCR hierarchy rule The Distribution of Crime Scope of the Crime Problem o 11 250 000 index crimes 2007 3 370 per 100 000 o murder rate of 6 100 000 is 5x the avg rate for other 15 industrialized nations o 22 9 million victimizations o Violent crime rate nearly 5x that of the UCR o Property rate more than 4x that of the UCR Crime Clock UCR o Violent crime every 22 seconds o Murder every half hour o Rape every 6 minutes o Robbery every minute o Burglary every 15 seconds o Theft every 5 seconds o Evening and nighttime hours have more crime o Weekends also have higher rates Historical Trends o Comparisons to 13th century England reveal rates that were 10 to 20 times as great as they are today o Crime rose markedly in 60s and 70s o Crime fell dramatically beginning in 1991 Classical Criminology Pre modern Understanding of Criminality o Demonic perspective o Crime resulted from supernatural forces o Crime conceived of as sin o Theological understanding of its cures RC church was THE defining agent of society o Corporal punishments for wrongdoers Burning alive Exorcisms to purge evil spirits Branding Ostracism banishment The Legal Environment o Arbitrary and capricious justice o Sentence often depended on one s social status o Corruption was a problem o Judges had wide discretion in
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