CCJS105 Study Guide 1 The Science of Criminology Philosophical approach foundation The politicization of science Science is commonly used to advance political claims racism sexism environmentalism fascism socialism Nearly every ism and ALL political groups attempt to claim the legitimacy of science Establishing facts is the key to winning debate The definition of Criminology The systematic study of 1 the processes of making law 2 the breaking of law and 3 the reaction to the breaking of law Politics Theory Criminal Justice Is Criminology a Science Yes kind of sort of Theory explains why something happens Methods Quantitative number and Qualitative stories Science is a methodology about testing things Q What role does the field play in shaping policy A Negligible Can we imagine major legislative decisions on health policy without careful consultation of doctors insurance executives and health care administrators How about crime legislation w o criminologists Q Why does criminology as a science lack credibility A We lack predictive power Prime example crime declined in 1991 Lack the ability to anticipate things However We ve been able to discredit several proposed solutions such as 1 Boot Camps 2 Death Penalty 3 Three Strikes legislation 4 DARE enormous program enhances the use of alcohol and drugs 5 Scared Straight engage in criminal behavior 6 Gun buy backs Social sciences tend to over predict criminal behavior Sunny side of equation criminology has established that these are failed programs repeated investigations and evaluation have discovered that these programs do not work Rate of prison about 2 3 of people who are released in 3 years 50 50 chance they will be returning to prison Nevertheless several of these programs remain Why 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 Range of ideology Conservative right punitive and repressive Liberal left forgiving and rehabilitative In a democracy we get to shape policy through voting This is informed by ideology The problem in creating a science evidence the field is NOT a science What is crime The definition is not fixed and unchanging 1 Legal definition nulla poena sine lege no punishment without the crime 2 Social harm problems loss of clarity victimless crimes Measuring Crime Catching the Wind with a Sieve Most crime that takes place in this country is not reported to the police Police need to know that crime took place in order to do something about UCR NCVS Comparison 2x as large Unknown element will always be present in equation The Distribution of Crime crime patterns Scope of the Crime Problem UCR data 11 250 000 index crimes 2007 3 370 per 100 000 Murder rate of 6 100 000 is 5x the avg rate for other 15 industrialized nations NCVS 22 9 MIL victimizations Violent crime rate nearly 5x that of the UCR Property rate more than 4x that of the UCR 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 More accurate crime clock evening and nighttime hours have more crime weekends also have higher rates Historical Trends Comparisons to 13th century England reveal rates that were 10 to 20 times as great as they are today Crime rose markedly in 60s and 70s Hippies drugs Crime fell dramatically beginning in 1991 police didn t exist as an entity until 19th century Measuring Crime Catching the Wind with a Sieve Logic systematic approach Impediment defining crime Criminology is a genuine and social science measurement and testing Ideas determine whether notions and ideologies have connection to reality as it exists Research Methodology Vocabulary Independent IV and dependent variables DV IV cause s of cause and effect DV Outcome what we are attempting to explain Oftentimes more difficult to establish than you would anticipate reciprocal relationships crime and poverty experience will bare these out IV DV one causes the other expectation and anticipation of an outcome IV examples race economic status unemployment rate education level or lack of education gender sex mental illness IQ level age low income DV examples location of crime frequency of crime violent versus nonviolent crimes imprisonment rates burglary and homicide rates victimization patterns prosecutorial recidivism re offending crime engagement Does my assigning a paper produce the needless death of students grandmothers Correlation and causality buzzfeed the 10 most bizarre correlations Just because two items are consistently related correlated does not imply a causal connection Example my having an umbrella handy every time it rains does not mean I control the weather Temporal i e Time Element Cross sectional data data collected at only 1 point in time ex snapshot can lead us to conclusion that one causes another Longitudinal data data collected at more than 1 point in time ex movie film Levels of Analysis Macro groups Gangs Neighborhoods States Nations Micro individual To establish causality 3 criteria Correlation it is a necessary but insufficient condition Temporal ordering Spuriousness must be eliminated Difficulty with criminology definition of crime and how crime actually occurs The Dark Figure of Crime total crime rate we don t know this but we try to estimate it with lingering element criminals don t tend to advertise their crimes Major elements Official Statistics Victimization Surveys Self Report their overlap helps us understand crime better Prison numbers do a poor job of giving crime estimates why cant we take prison counts Not everyone gets arrested plea bargains one prisoner does not always equal one crime ONLY Maybe they have a wide variety of criminal behaviors A lot of crime goes undetected and not reported to the authorities criteria of truth has reasonable doubt bar is set high Why is it that individuals engage in criminal behavior criminology Sources of Crime Statistics Early sources of statistics Local arrest numbers can vary Court records Jail and prison population counts Media accounts Contemporary efforts Official reports Victim surveys Self Reports Media no crime statistics particular instances not a reflection of overall problem intriguing and conversation points the different and odd occurrences Not reflecting of the overall crime problem misleading issue
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