Statistics are usually collected on based on three categories: Offenses, the breach of law; Offenders, those who commit the offenses; and the victims, the ones who are offended against. The United States has programs in which they collect this data; the first is the Uniform Crime Reports, which is compiled by the FBI and the Crime Victimization Survey, handled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Crime statistics for the same crime can vary based on not just between countries and jurisdictions, but also between individual law enforcement officers that have come across the same exact case. There are some crimes that are reported to law enforcement but are not reported because the law enforcement officer that takes the report has the power of discretion. They have the ability to affect how much crime is recorded, based on how they record their activities.
According to Tappan’s (1947 p.100, quoted in Muncie et al 2010 p.4) “crime is an intentional act in violation of criminal law (statutory or case law), committed without defence or excuse and penalised by the state as a felony or misdemeanour”. In other words crime may be known as an act deliberately committed which breaches legal conduct punishable by state. This is a common understanding of crime today but unfortunately crime is not as simple as being a breach of law. The study of crime is vast and under constant debate. Crime is ever changing varying culturally, globally and historically.
Once the behavioral profile is done, the profiler can then compare this to other criminals or mental patients with the same basic characteristics. It is generally very difficult to get professional hands-on experience on how to be a profiler. Police have been able to catch a wide array of people using profilers, including serial killers. Once criminals have been taken into custody, profilers can learn even more about the criminal mind and can find possible motives, verify motives, and/or assess the defendant's state of mind. The police psychologist does more hands-on work with officers and victims as opposed to criminals.
There are many theories relating to deviance and crime with each theory illustrating a different aspect of the procedure by which people break rules and are classed as deviants or criminals. (New texts pg 138) which highlights the problems in defining crime or deviance. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CRIME AND DEVIANCE Many believe crime and deviance has developed on separate tracks over the years as criminologist serve only for legality, crime and crime-related phenomena. The study of deviance however serves for a wider range of behaviours that are not necessarily illegal for example suicide, alcoholism, homosexuality, mentally disordered behaviours. (Bader et al) The main difference between crime and deviance is deviant behaviour is when a social norm has been broken whereas a crime is where a formal and social norm is broken.
Background Research on Criminology Criminology is the scientific study of crime its causes and how to resolve it. One common theory of criminology is the psychological theory. This theory explains crime in the mind set of the criminal. The psychological theory of crime is basically that some people are born with a mind which is intended to do harm to others. In other cases some criminals are born with the lack of humility, which is the ability to put yourself in the situation of the person who you are doing harm to.
Victimology: A Study of Crime Victims 1 Victimology is an important element in the process of learning about crime victims, the needs of the victims, and even about the perpetrator of the crime. It identifies the victims, reveals their physical and mental state before and after the crime, their social interactions, and ideas as to why they were a victim. Victimology does not give the reasons why a particular person is chosen by an offender, however it will give general overview of victim selection (Petherick, “Victimology” 2010) The definitions of victimology vary in the use of words within the definition, such as victim, crime victim or behavior of crime victim. Victimology as an academic term containing two elements; the Latin word “victima” which translate into victim and the Greek word “logos” which means a system of knowledge (Dussich “Victimology ‘Past, Present and Future’”2000). In it’s simplest definition, victimology is the study of the victim or victims of a particular offender (Wallace & Roberson 2011: 3).
I will elaborate on how the threat of terrorism impacted Crime and Criminal Laws. Crime is defined as “A Wrong against society or the public interest”. While it is undocumented it is supposed that since the beginning of human society and human interaction there as always been Crime. It is not difficult to reason and imagine a caveman stealing another caveman’s food or water in an effort to survive. So while we defined the term crime how do we identify if an event or action is a Crime.
Yet it brings about so many different meanings. .The system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties. What is criminality? Criminality is basically said to be the state as that of a criminal, there are many curiosities of a criminal which is why there are many studies of a criminals behaviour, and what drives an individual to make choices that lead up to the meaningless evidential life of a criminal. Law and criminality is the study of ones behaviour and justifying that by the certain laws of the specific countries
The Theories as to why Crimes Happen There are many reasons behind an individual wanting to commit a crime. It could have something to do with, what happened in their past. They may also be in some type of financial turmoil or they want to do it just so they can get a high from it. Whatever the reason may be, we need to understand why these crimes happen. Many people believe that crimes are committed because people have mental issues, however that is not the case.
1. What is a typology? What are some of the typologies of violent crime that this module discusses? * Typology is classifying offenses or offenders by some relatedness, criteria, or similarity, arranging some offenders as normal, abnormal, habitual, or professional...extending from insane to petty offenders. Typology for crime uses defined characteristics, such as motivation, situation, behavior-both victim and offender-, and aspects unique to the offense.