Introduction to Criminology Exam 1 Study Guide Concepts Terms Politicization The politicization of science Science is commonly used to advance political claims racism sexism environmentalism fascism ect 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 definition of criminology They systematic study of 1 the processes of making law 2 the breaking of the law and 3 the reaction to the breaking of law Politics Theory Criminal Justice study of police courts and corrections Correlation and causation Correlation and causation Correlation Factors needed for causation correlation Spuriousness Spurious relationship Looking at how two factors move with each other Correlation does not mean causation 1 Correlation 2 Temporal order one comes first being drunk occurs before assault to try to prove 3 Absence of spurious relationship can t have some external variable dictating data X and y appear to be related BUT relationship is not causal Relationship is driven by some other variable Summer Certain months summer people are out more more crimes Ideology 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 Conflict and consensus theory Consensus model Criminal law reflects the interest of members of the society at large The consensus of society is something should be illegal so it is i e almost everyone agrees that murder should be prohibited so it is Conflict Model The criminal justice system and criminal law operate on behalf of the rich and social elites with policies aimed at controlling the poor i e petty street crimes often carry harsher sentences that white collar offenses that steal millions of dollars i e crack v cocaine 100 1 sentencing disparity The dark figure of crime Dark figure of crime Ecological fallacy Ecological fallacy Only record crimes known to the police Harrow 1986 only 35 of crimes that take place are actually reported to police We cannot make inferences about INDIVIDUALS based on INFERENCES about a group Example Study shows the more prison guards working in a prison WITHOUT COLLEGE DEGREES the more inmate complaints of guard brutality Can we conclude that an individual correctional officer without a college degree is more likely to engage in brutality against inmates NO Index crimes 8 crimes listed as index crimes 1 Homicide 2 Rape 3 Robbery the use of physical force or threat of physical force in order to illegally obtain property person to person 4 Aggravated assault 5 Burglary unlawful entry into a dwelling with the intention of committing a crime inside person to inanimate 6 Larceny theft take your property without force person to person 7 Motor vehicle theft 8 Arson Bounding as a way of addressing memory decay and telescoping Bounding is achieved by comparing incidents reported in an interview with incidents reported in a previous interview and deleting duplicate incidents that were reported in the current reference period Problems with survey methodology Memory decay forgetfulness produces downward bias forget the crime Telescoping over inclusion produces upward bias feels like the crime was yesterday Bounding first interview is thrown out the new baseline is the second interview Solution Is criminology a science Yes and no Is criminology a science Yes has theory explains why something happens and methods quantitative and qualitative stories Hierarchy rule and series victimization Hierarchical rule Robbed and raped only rape Robbed rape and murdered only homicide Series victimization Six or more similar but separate crimes that the victim is unable to recall individually or describe in detail to an interviewer Counted as one event Example My domestic partner physically abuses me multiple times every single day If I cannot accurately recall the details NCVS will not count every single incident Quantitative and qualitative data Cross sectional and longitudinal data Temporal i e time element Cross sectional data data collected at any one point in time Longitudinal data data collected at more than one point in time Ex snapshot Ex movie film Macro and micro level of measurement Levels of analysis Macro groups Neighborhoods States Micro groups Individual Items Uniform Crime Reports strengths weaknesses Uniform crime reports UCR FBI crime in the United States Advantages of the UCR Mostly consistent definition of crime across jurisdictions Trend data National figures can be broken down these are raw counts and represents a census Limitations of the UCR Subject to political manipulation i e unfound crime Hierarchy rule Despite best efforts difference remain in definitions ex Illinois and rape Ecological fallacy Measure of police activity rather than crime officially reported crime Police can create more crime National Crime Victimization Survey strengths weaknesses NCVS strengths Eliminates reporting bias Problems with survey methodology Memory decay forgetfulness produces downward bias forget the crime Telescoping over inclusion produces upward bias feels like the crime was yesterday Solution Bounding first interview is thrown out the new baseline is the second interview NCVS weaknesses Rape question redesign in 1992 produced much higher estimates Cannot compare pre and post statistics Household survey excludes institutions like jails and businesses Victimless crimes and homicide not included Series victimization rule underestimates crime Analogous to the UCR hierarchy rule Self report surveys Self report data Asking people about their own criminal behavior Typically done with juveniles i e national youth survet NYS Self report data strengths Another tool to uncover the dark figure of crime Goes straight to the source the perpetrator Police or political figures cannot alter SRD Self report data weakness Historically has only focused on adolescent populations Difficult to recall events that occurred in the past Falsification individuals may lie about criminal past Hardt Peterson Hardt 1977 self report method appears to provide valid and reliable measures of criminal activity Crime Patterns Correlates of Offending Victimization Across 1 time Historical trends Comparisons to 13th century England reveal rates that were 10 to 20 times as great as they are today Crime rose markedly
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