• Quantitative evidence – recorded crime levels over time • Qualitative evidence – Interviews, observations & surveys • Increased reporting of crime (Maguire 1997) • Offenders as % population by gender & age • Area where we live – (Social Trends, 2002, pp.154-5). • Crime by ethnicity • British Crime Survey 1982 – Men/Women/age groups Conclusion: • Key point summary • Perception of crime and actual likelihood R6113606 What forms of evidence have been used by social scientists in studies of crime? Crime is interpreted in many different ways, it is therefore important to establish what the term ‘Crime’ actually means. Crime is an act that may be punishable by law, is injurious to the public and or evil. There appears to be a difference between how social scientists would look at crime and how the general public would look at crime.
Different sociologists have presented different theories and concepts to explain what drives a person to commit a crime, and research and statistics give us an idea of the type of crimes committed and the places that they’re most likely to occur. However, these statistics can prove to be misleading as not all crime is reported to or recorded by the police. This can be referred to as the ‘hidden figure’, and it differentiates between the official crime rate and the real rate. Despite this, they do prove to be worthwhile in the fact that they display trends and patterns of crime. Sociologists use three different methods to measure crime; each method provides us with particular information and as in all systems of data collecting, there are strengths and weaknesses to the method.
A victim survey is where people get asked what crimes have happened to them over a particular period of time. This is different from the British Crime Survey (BCS) or the Crime survey for England and Wales (CSEW) -which is an annual victimisation survey that is carried out by the Home Office; it tries to find out about crime that has not been recorded by the police. Both of these types of survey and therefore types of statistics that you can collect, these differ to the statistics produced from the police because of many ways. One example is that the statistics that come from the police just come from reported crime whereas victim surveys come from people’s experience of crime. Another example of how statistics from the police and statistics from victim surveys are different is because not all victims report crime to the police for many reasons and therefore create what’s called “the dark figure” (The number of crimes that go un-reported, we have no idea how big or small this number is).
Williams and Dickinson (1993) found British newspapers devote up to 30% of their news space to crime. However while the mass media show interest in crime they give a distorted image of crime, criminals, and policing. For example compared to the picture of crime we gain from official statistics the media over represent violent and sexual crime. For example Ditton and Duffy (1983) found that 46% of media reports were about violent or sexual crimes, yet these made up only 3% of all crimes recorded by the police. The media portray criminals and victims as older and more middle class than those found typically in the criminal justice system.
Uniform Crime Reports and National Crime Information Center 3 (UCR) and (NCIC) The use of Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) is to provide law enforcement with data for use in budget formulation, planning, resource allocation, assessment of police operations etc, to help address the crime problem at various levels. Over time criminal justice researchers study the nature, cause, and movement of crime. Uniform Crime Reports provide crime statistics to the news media to inform the public about the state of crime and situation. The (FBI) uses Uniform Crime Reports system for recording crimes and making policy decisions. Since 1930 (UCR) has tracked data on crimes, such as murder, robbery, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, and vehicle theft.
Symbolic interactionism first emerged in the 1930s and began to grow around the 1960s. Unlike conventional functionalist criminology who are methodologically positivistic and rely on the Official Crime statistics as social facts, Interactionists views OCS as a social construction compiled by the police, courts and Criminal Justice System. Interactionists take a micro approach when studying crime and deviance as they are particularly interested in the studying individuals in society the process of interaction to discover why certain groups are more susceptible to deviancy than others. The term labelling theory derives from Interactionism which argues that individuals are presented with different labels, some of which are stigmatized such as a delinquent. This is the work of Becker who argues “Deviancy is not a quality of the act a person commits but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an ‘offender’.
Explain how honesty and dishonesty impact self-report studies. Being completely honest in these self-reports may help different groups of people understand criminal behaviors and crimes. These reports are gathered information that is put into data. National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is an incident-based reporting system for crimes known to the police. For each crime incident coming to the attention of law enforcement, a variety of data are collected about the incident.
Not every crime should be subject to double jeopardy. Robbery, traffic offenses, divorce suits, and minor assault cases should remain protected from double jeopardy. Only the crimes where society is at a serious risk, and new and compelling evidence is brought to light for those serious crimes, should there be a retrial of an acquitted person. In 2006, there were new rules on double jeopardy that were put into force which scored a first conviction. ( Economist) “Pressure for a change in the law came after an official inquiry into the murder in 1993 of Stephen Lawrence, a black London schoolboy, found that the principle of double jeopardy would cause “grave injustice to victims and the community” (Economist).
Armed robbery was documented as an appeal to the throne by Henry the 2nd. The crime itself was also considered punishable. It later was known as a capital felony in the 1830’s of England. They will be introduced to the drug program if the individual is an addict of some sort. The criminal justice system will also recommend educational training, work experience; counseling and other programs that make inmates give back to the neighborhoods.
Week 2 Candice S. Brooks Instructor: Dr. Nwokoji 4007676 American Public University System CMRJ531 June 16, 2013 The profession of criminal profiling/ offender profiling is defined as a series of investigative techniques used to assess the characteristics of an unknown criminal offender (Devery, 2010). Criminal profiling is based upon the premise that a criminal’s personality and mannerisms actually dictate their daily behaviour as well as their criminal actions. After crime scene evidence is evaluated, the criminal profiler pieces together the information that is known from past criminal acts to include personality traits and behaviours of other criminals who have committed similar acts. The profiler can actually construct a profile by using a description of the characteristics in the suspect. These practices often lead to locating suspects, yet they are still often scrutinized in the media and cause a great deal of controversy.