CCJS105 Test One Study Guide 12 12 2012 Introduction to Criminology Terms and Concepts Politicization The politicization of science is the manipulation of science for political gain It occurs when government business or advocacy groups use legal or economic pressure to influence the findings of scientific research or the way it is disseminated reported or interpreted Criminology The systematic study of 1 the processes of making law 2 the breaking of law pondering why people break the law and 3 the reaction to the breaking of law Correlation and Causation Just because two items are consistently related correlated does not imply a casual connection o Example my having an umbrella handy every time it rains doesn t mean I control the weather Spuriousness not being what it purports to be must be eliminated o Are their elements outside of the one you are pointing to that are the actual cause Ideology basic beliefs or values usually formed in early life and through which people filter information Conflict and Consensus Theory o Conflict A belief that the law disproportionately reflects the interest of a powerful minority within society o Consensus A belief that the law reflects the interest of most people in society more or less evenly o The Powerful vs The Masses The Dark Figure of Crime the unknown and unknowable tally o Example Tallying the number of crimes in regards to prison population Total Crime Official Reports Victim Reports 1 Ecological Fallacy An ecological fallacy is a logical fallacy in the interpretation of statistical data in an ecological study whereby inferences about the nature of specific individuals are based solely upon aggregate statistics collected for the group to which those individuals belong o Example Stereotypes Index Crimes Part I of the UCR consist of crimes known to the police including both crimes the police themselves discover and crimes reported by citizens Eight crimes comprise the Part I Index Crimes o Criminal Homicide o Forcible Rape o Robbery o Aggravated Assault o Burglary o Larceny Theft o Motor vehicle theft o Arson Bounding as a way of addressing memory decay and telescoping threaten the validity of a self report o Example NCVS This procedure produces a panel design that allows the same group of people to be queried over a period of time It also provides the opportunity to control for the problem of telescoping by comparing the most recently reported victimizations with responses from the previous interview Is criminology a science o Two essential components of science are its theoretical and its methodological branches Theory and methods are integrally related in the scientific method of studying crime Theory represents an effort to explain or make sense of the world thus revolving around the why of crime criminalization and similar concerns 2 Methodology refers to the techniques or methods that criminologists use as they attempt to determine the whys of crime Hierarchy Rule and Series Victimization Underestimate of the amount of crime that actually takes place only reports most serious crimes This can have the effect of understanding the extent of certain types of victimization Quantitative and Qualitative data o Quantitative statistical data crime statistics o Qualitative stories provides detail Cross sectional and Longitudinal data o Cross sectional data data collected at only 1 point in time Definitive point in time o Longitudinal data data collected at more than 1 point in time How many times have you been a victim in a crime repeated Macro and Micro Level of Measurement o Macro societal nations states cities o Micro individual Items UCR Uniform Crime Reports o Strengths Consistent definition of crime Trend data National figures can be broken down these are raw counts and represent a census o Weaknesses Subject to political manipulation i e unfound crime Hierarchy Rule Underestimate of the amount of crime that actually takes place only reports most serious crimes Despite best efforts difference remain in definitions ex Illinois and rape only state that takes in account male rape Ecological Fallacy 3 Measure of police activity rather than crime officially reported crime 66 7 Competing styles of police management reflects in crime numbers results into odd figures National Crime Victimization Surveys NCVS o Strengths Eliminates reporting Affects overall count o Weaknesses Rape question redesign in 1992 produced much higher Household survey excludes institutions like jails and estimates businesses For example excludes dorms Victimless crimes and homicide not included because they are dead really important element Series victimizations produces undercounting similar to hierarchy rule Self Report Surveys National Incident Based Reporting System NIBRS o Goal 1 To enhance the quantity quality and timeliness of statistical data collected by law enforcement o Goal 2 To improve the methodology used for compiling analyzing and publishing crime data Strengths Good context of the crime gives you more details evolution of crime understanding crime through collecting richer data allows for the reporting of multiple offenses collects more data on more crimes and more types of victims individual risk factors Weaknesses 4 Overlaps the UCR do not understand the error structure does not include unreported crime the program is cumbersome demands a lot of input few states have full implemented it burden put on reporting agencies voluntary scope of data unfamiliarity with the data because there is so much makes it hard to analyze huge breath of information uncertainties with how young the system is Crime Patterns Correlates of Offending Victimization 1A Time Evening and Nighttime hours have more crime Summer months December holiday season stress argument less day light biological effect Weekends also have higher rates o For example drinking they can get violent 1B Crime clock UCR Violent crime every 22 seconds Murder every half hour Rape every 6 minutes Robbery every minute Burglary every 15 seconds Theft every 5 seconds Crime happens consistently throughout the day 2 Geographical Area UCR Southern States 37 of population 41 of rapes 45 of assaults Northeastern States 18 of population 15 of violent and 12 of property crime UCR o Geographical it is cooler o Less poverty The NCVS indicates that the West has the most crime however Urban Phenomenon o Metropolitan areas have significantly higher crime rates than rural areas 5 o More contact we have with strangers
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