Criterion of Demarcation for a Scientific Statement is FALSIFIABILITY Karl Popper Accessibility to evidence is what makes a statement scientific and therefore FALSIFIABLE A statement is scientific if evidence matters in relation to its truth Science doesn t work on the basis of truth it works on the basis of statements that have not yet been falsified Scientific method works so hard to be careful in how evidence is accumulated is to that others who come behind them can have the ability to falsify it If it s not falsifiable it s not scientific The scientific method promotes falsifiability Falsifiability openness to evidence This is the best ice cream I ve ever tasted not falsifiable because it s a personal experience not intended to be generalized This chocolate ice cream is proven to be liked by more people than vanilla falsifiable because it is open to evidence Criminologists have many ways of examining crime all have strengths and limitations none better than others Science has 2 primary functions 1 Describe reality 2 Explain what has been described Explanation is the mother of scientific inquiry because it answers the question WHY Theory aka EXPLANATION strongest tool of any science because it explains reality It is our attempt to make sense of the world around us Answers the why how Always has the real world as its object the real world as it has been described by the ways of knowing that a particular discipline of science has The ways of knowing describe what we think we know about crime theory then attempts to answer why Crime is an overwhelmingly male phenomenon Criminologists don t explain crime criminal behavior we explain OBSERVED PATTERNS about crime and criminal behavior Dr Chiricos told the story of how Galileo came and increased the powers of the telescope and using a different way of knowing disproved the Ptolemaic system of Astronomy In doing this Galileo brought forth a new descriptive reality as well as a new theory explanation The point is THE EVIDENCE WAS AVAILABLE TO FALSIFIABILITY 4 PRINCIPLE TOOLS OF CRIMINOLOGY ways of knowing socially constructing meaning 1 Direct observation 2 Uniform Crime Report 3 Victim Surveys 4 Self report crime survey These are the ways criminologists act as a social audience using the tools at their disposal to construct certain meanings ABOUT crime The biggest number of social audiences involved in the social construction of meaning about crime is the UCR it s the most scientific and widely cited source Direct Observation Occurs when people systematically describe what they experience AND what they know to be true from that experience Extraordinarily informal and insightful go into such depth Monster autobiography of an LA gangbanger Got beat into the Crip gang after 8th grade graduation went out and did random shootings as a part of his initiation he was diminished in his quality as a person if he hadn t killed anyone recently Code of the Street Elijah Emerson says there are street codes and there are decent codes which are competing with one another and different kids are socialized to be drawn toward one code Street codes refer to gangs drugs etc decent codes refer to observing laws going to school etc Gives criminologists ideas of things that could be examined in a different more systematic way Weaknesses UNFALSIFIABLE Knowledge is so idiosyncratic so personal that it s literally impossible to falsify Lack of the ability to generalize Bias Remember no way of knowing is remotely perfect but they all contribute evidence to science and each tool assists in social construction of meaning about crime ALSO none form a mirror image but a human social construction of what appears to be appreciate this value Uniform Crime Report Single most important consistently used cited source to form a descriptive view of crime Most widely used yearly publication Florida s parallel is crime in Florida Involves crimes known to the police ckp basic data that UCR presents Crime index is the summary of CKP involving 7 crimes murder manslaughter robbery aggravated assault burglary MV theft larceny and sexual assault MV theft larceny burglary represent 90 of the Property Crime index Agg assault sexual assault murder and robbery represent 10 of the violent crime rate Crime rate rate of CKP per 100 000 the statistic that political figures use when trying to make accusations about crime UCR also reports crimes cleared by arrests It shows the volume of arrests and the characteristics of the people arrested age sex race Supplemental homicide report provides weapon victim characteristics and offender characteristics if known All data in UCR are from law enforcement statistics Agencies reporting to FBI for UCR represent 98 of urban populations 90 of rural areas THEREFORE UCR IS THE MOST REPRESENTATIVE SOURCE Strengths Tell us about the what of crime how much is happening where it is happening what are the trends Done consistently for decades so we can compare over the years More representative covers more people and areas Tell about the volume amount and the rate amount per 100 000 RESDIDENTS of crime Provides characteristics of those who are arrested providing inside into the who of crim in terms of arrests How crime rate volume varies in relation to place and time Note the way sexual assault has been recorded has changed as of 1993 Tells us the amount of loss occurring after property crimes we can compare the cost of harms with without the meaning of crime Very common for media to only report volume of crime REMEMBER at any given moment there are 2 million tourists which do not count in the RATE of crime because they are not residents So reporting only volume is an inaccurate measurement Limitations Doesn t directly address the who of crime stops at arrests Only 51 of violent crime and 39 of property crimes are reported to the police therefore the UCR does not have record of the occurrences Restricted by the social audiences victims and police willingness and ability to report police taking allegation seriously and the police s ability to arrest the offender If a murder and vehicle theft occur during a home burglary only the murder will be counted Sometimes the variance between agencies is hard to compare because the continuity changes in how jurisdictions deal with their crime trends No measure of juvenile crime A Resources Officers to go into the field and examine crime scenes B Local political organizational pressure Crime rates are computed and show
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