CONCEPTS OF CRIME, LAW, AND CRIMINOLOGY
THE STUDY OF CRIMINOLGY
Criminology developed from a concern about crime and the
need to develop effective measures to control criminal behavior.
- Devoted to developing
valid and reliable information that addresses the causes of crime as well as
crime patterns and trends
Criminologists use scientific methods to study the
nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behavior.
- Remain objective
as they study crime and its consequences
WHAT IS CRIMINOLOGY?
The scientific approach to studying
criminal behavior
Sutherland and Cressy’s classic
definition of criminology as a body of knowledge regarding crime as a social
phenomena, includes the most important areas of interest to criminologists:
1.
The development of criminal law and its use to define crime;
2.
the cause of law violations;
3.
the methods used to control criminal behavior
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CRIMINOLOGY
The scientific study of crime is a
relatively recent development
Written criminal codes have existed for
thousands of years
Were restricted to defining crime and
setting punishments
What motivated people to violate the law
remained a matter of conjecture
During the Middle Ages (1200-1600) superstition
and fear of satanic possession dominated thinking
People who violated norms were believed
to be witches or possessed by demons
Prescribed method for dealing with the
possessed was burning at stake (a practice that survived into the 17th
century)
Common practice to use cruel torture to
extract confessions and those convicted of violent or theft crimes suffered
extremely harsh penalties, including whipping, branding, maiming, and execution
Classical Criminology
Mid 18th century, social
philosophers began to rethink the prevailing concepts of law and justice
Argued for more rational approach to
punishment, stressing that the relationship between crimes and their punishment
should be fair and balanced
Rather than cruel public executions
designed to frighten people into obedience or punish those the law failed to
deter, reformers called for a more moderate and just approach to penal
sanctions
Cesare Beccaria was the most famous
reformer and his writings described both a motive for committing crime and
methods for its control
Believed that people want to achieve
pleasure and avoid pain
Concluded that crimes must provide some
pleasure to the criminal
To deter crime, one must administer pain
in an appropriate amount to counterbalance the pleasure obtained from crime.
Writings formed the core of Classical
Criminology theory which had several basic elements:
1.
In every society, people have free will to choose criminal or
lawful solutions to meet their needs or settle their problems;
2.
Criminal solutions may be more attractive than lawful ones because
they usually require less work for a greater payoff;
3.
A person’s choice of criminal solutions may be controlled by his or
her fear of punishment;
4.
The more severe, certain, and swift the punishment, the better able
it is to control criminal behavior.
Prisons began to be used as a form of
punishment with sentences geared proportionately to the seriousness of the
crime.
Executions were still used, but only for
more serious crimes
“Let the punishment fit the crime.”
Nineteenth-Century Positivism
The scientific method beginning to take
hold with careful observation and analysis of natural phenomena being
undertaken to explain how world worked
Positivism has two main elements:
1.
The belief that human behavior is a function of external forces
that are beyond individual control
2.
The embrace of the scientific method to solve problems relying
strictly on empirical methods to test hypotheses
Positivist Criminology – the earliest
“scientific” studies examining human behavior were biologically oriented
Physiognomists – studied facial features
of criminals to determine whether the shape of ears, nose, and eyes and the
distances between them were associated with anti-social behavior.
Phrenologists – studied the shape of the
skull and bumps on the head to determine whether these physical attributes were
linked to criminal behavior
Psychopathic personality – abnormality in
the human mind that was linked to criminal behavior patterns
Biological Determinism – Lombroso
believed that serious offenders were born criminals who suffer from atavistic
abnormalities where they, physically, are throwbacks to more primitive times
when people were savages
The Foundations of Sociological Criminology
Quetelet instigated the use of data and
statistics in performing criminological research
Began cartographic school of criminology
that used social statistics that were being developed in Europe in the early 19th
century
Statistical data provided important
demographic information on the population, including density, gender, religious
affiliation, and wealth
Investigated influences of social factors
on the propensity to commit crime
Found a strong influence of age and sex
on crime, also evidence that season, climate, population composition, and
poverty related to criminality
Found crime rates were greatest in the
summer, in southern areas, among heterogeneous populations, and among the poor
and uneducated
Also found crime rates to be influenced
by drinking habits
Identified many of the relationships
between crime and social phenomena that still serve as a basis for criminology
today
Durkheim’s social positivism stated:
1.
crime is part of human nature;
2.
crime is normal;
3.
the inevitability of crime is linked to the differences
(heterogeneity) within society;
4.
crime can be useful and occasionally healthful for society because
it paves the way for social change and that the social structure is not rigid
or inflexible;
5.
crime calls attention to social ills, therefore rising crime rates
signal a need for social change and promotes programs designed to relieve human
suffering.
Anomie is the consequence of the shift
from mechanical to organic types of society
Anomie consists of norm or role confusion
which describes the chaos and disarray accompanying the loss of traditional
values in modern society
The Chicago School and Beyond
Sociological positivism in the 20th
century took place at the University of Chicago by Robert Ezra Park, Ernest W.
Burgess, and Louis Wirth
The urban sociologists pioneered research
on the social ecology of the city
Social forces operating in urban areas
create criminal interactions; some neighborhoods become “natural areas” for
crime
These urban neighborhoods maintain such a
high level of poverty that critical social institutions break down
Resulting disorganization reduces the
ability of social institutions to control behavior, causing high crime rates
Argued that criminal behavior is not a
function of personal traits or characteristics, but rather a reaction to an
environment that was inadequate for proper human relations and development.
During the 1930s and 1940s another group of
sociologists, who were strong believers in a social psychological link to
criminal behavior concluded that the individual’s relationship to important
social processes was the key to understanding human behavior.
Edwin Sutherland championed the position
that people learn criminal attitudes from older, more experienced law violators
Walter Reckless developed the view that
crime occurs when children develop an inadequate self-image, which renders them
incapable of controlling their own misbehavior.
Both linked criminality to the failure of
socialization – the interactions people have with the various
individuals, organizations, institutions, and processes of society that help
them mature and develop
Conflict Criminology – analyzes social conditions that promote
class conflict and crime
Criminology Today
Classical theory has evolved into
rational choice and deterrence theories
Choice theorists argue that criminals are
rational and use available information to decide if crime is worthwhile
Deterrence theory holds that this choice
is structured by the fear of punishment
Theories tracing back to Quetelet and
Durkheim maintains that individual’s lifestyles and living conditions directly
control their criminal behavior
Those at the bottom of the social
structure cannot achieve success and thus experience anomie, strain, failure,
and frustration.
Crime causation from a social
psychological perspective find that individual’s learning experience and
socialization directly control their behavior by children learning to commit
crime by interacting with and modeling their behavior after others
CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The Distinction Between Criminology and
Criminal Justice – criminology explains the origin, extent, and nature of crime
in society, criminal justice refers to the agencies of social control that
handle criminal offenders
The Distinction Between Criminology and
Deviance – deviant behavior refers to any action that departs from social norms
ranging from the most socially harmful to the relatively inoffensive
To understand the nature and purpose of
law, criminologists study the process by which crimes are created from
behaviors that previously were considered merely deviant:
1.
How do deviant behaviors become crime?
2.
When should crimes be legalized?
WHAT CRIMINOLOGISTS DO: THE
CRIMINOLOGICAL ENTERPRISE
Criminal Statistics – involves measuring
the amount and trends of criminal activity.
How much crime occurs annually?
Who commits it? When and where
does it occur? Which crimes are the
most serious?
Sociology of Law – concerned with the
role social forces play in shaping criminal law and concomitantly, the role of
criminal law in shaping society.
Theory Construction – focus on predicting
individual behavior and understanding the cause of crime rates and trends
Criminal Behavior Systems – focus on
determining the nature and cause of specific crime patterns, such as violence,
theft, organized, white-collar, and public order crimes
Penology – involves the correction and
control of known criminal offenders
Victimology – interested in using victim
surveys to measure the nature and extent of criminal behavior; calculating the
actual costs of crime to victims; creating probabilities of victimization risk;
studying victim culpability or precipitation of crime; and designing services
for crime victims, such as counseling and compensation programs
HOW CRIMINOLOGISTS VIEW CRIME
The Consensus View of Crime – crimes are
behaviors believed to be repugnant to all elements of society; implies general
agreement among a majority of citizens on what behaviors should be prohibited
by criminal law and viewed as crimes; function of beliefs, morality, and rules
established by the existing legal power structure; laws apply to all citizens
equally
The Conflict View of Crime – the
definition of crime is controlled by wealth, power, and position; crime is a
political concept designed to protect the power and position of the upper
classes at the expense of the poor.
The Interactionist View of Crime – the
definition of crime reflects the preferences and opinions of people who hold
social power in a particular legal jurisdiction; these people use their
influence to impose their definition of right and wrong on the rest of the
population; criminals are individuals that society labels as outcasts or
deviants because they have violated social rules.
See criminal law as conforming to the
beliefs of “moral crusaders” or moral entrepreneurs who use their influence to
shape the legal process as they see fit
Concerned with shifting moral and legal
standards
Crime has no meaning unless people react
to it
CRIMINOLOGY RESEARCH METHODS
Survey Research – measures the attitudes,
beliefs, values, personality traits, and behavior of participants
Survey data gathered using techniques
such as self-report surveys and interviews
Involves sampling, which refers to
the process of selecting for study a limited number of subjects who represent entire
groups sharing similar characteristics, called populations
Self-report surveys ask participants to
describe in detail their recent and lifetime criminal activity
Attitude surveys measure the attitudes,
beliefs, and values of different groups
Among the most widely used research
method
Are an excellent and cost-effective
technique for measuring the characteristics of large numbers of people
Because questions and methods are
standardized for all subjects, uniformity is unaffected by the perceptions or
biases of the person gathering the data
Are of limited value in showing how
subjects change over time
Assume all subjects will be honest and
forthright
Are limited when the area of study involves
the way people interact with one another or other topics an individual my not
be able to judge personally
Cohort Research – involves observing a
group of people who share a like characteristic (cohort) over time
Is extremely difficult, expensive, and
time-consuming to follow a cohort over time
Can do a retrospective cohort study where
an intact cohort is studied by looking back into their early life experiences
by checking their educational, family, police, and hospital records
Aggregate Data Research – can tell us
about the effect of social trends and patterns on the crime rate
Most important of these sources is the
Uniform Crime Report (UCR) compiled by the FBI
UCR annually reveals the number of crimes
reported by citizens to local police departments and the number of arrests made
by police agencies in a given year
Aggregate data can be used to focus on
the social forces that affect crime
Experimental Research – can show the
direct effect of one factor on another
True experiments have three
elements: (1) random selection of subjects; (2) a control or comparison group; and (3) an experimental condition
Criminological experiments are relatively
rare because they are difficult and expensive to conduct; they involve
manipulating subjects’ lives, which can cause some ethical and legal
roadblocks; and they require long follow-up periods to verify results
Observational and Interview Research –
focus their research on relatively few subjects, interviewing them in depth or
observing them as they go about their activities
Often results in the kind of in-depth
data absent in large surveys
Another common criminological method is
to observe criminals firsthand in order to gain insight into their motives and
activities
Some observers conduct field studies but
remain in the background, observing but not being part of the ongoing activity
ETHICAL ISSUES IN CRIMINOLOGY
A potential conflict of interest may
arise when the institution funding research is itself one of the principal
subjects of the research project.
A second major ethical issue concerns who
will be the subject of inquiries and study.
Ethics are once again questioned when
subjects are misled about the purpose of research
CRIMINAL LAW AND THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF CRIME
Criminal law dictates what constitutes a crime and how criminal acts
are defined. Today’s criminal law
incorporates historical traditions, moral beliefs, and social values, as well
as political and economic developments and conditions.
Criminal law is a living concept,
constantly changing to keep pace with society.
THE ORIGIN OF LAW
In preliterate societies, common custom
and tradition were the equivalents of law.
Each group had its own set of customs which were created to deal with daily
situations.
In some cases, customs had become such an
integral part of the way a culture functioned that eventually they became
formal or written law.
The first legal codes were developed in
about 2000 B.C. and its content was later adopted and became known as the set
of written laws called the Code of Hammurabi.
The code establishes crimes and their
correction.
Punishment was based on physical
retaliation or lex talionis “an eye for an eye”
Early Crime, Punishment, and Law In Chaos
The early formal legal codes were lost
during the Dark Ages.
During the early feudal period some
attempts were made at regulating the definition and punishment of crime.
Those that still exist feature monetary
payments as punishments for crimes.
Guilt was determined by two methods: compurgation (swearing innocence while being
backed up) and ordeal (based on the principle of divine intervention and the
belief that divine forces would not allow an innocent person to be harmed
The lords of the great manors , who tried
cases according to local custom and rule, controlled the law
Although people usually agreed which acts
constituted crimes, the penalties were often arbitrary, discretionary, and
cruel. Punishments included public
flogging, branding, beheading, and burning.
Origins of Common Law - After the Norman Conquest of England in
1066, common law developed, which helped standardize law and justice
Compensation for Crime – to a great degree, criminal law was
designed to provide equitable solutions to what were previously considered
private disputes; medieval criminal law was similar to modern civil law where
victims are compensated for their loss and suffering by the party that harmed
them. If payment was not made, the
victims’ families would attempt to forcibly collect damages or seek revenge.
The Norman Conquest – after the conquest, the church courts handled
acts that might be considered sinful and the local hundred or manorial courts
dealt with most secular violations; royal courts dealt with the most serious
breaches of the peace.
Royal courts had a system in which they
traveled in a circuit throughout the land, holding court in each county several
times a year.
The royal judge would decide what to do in
each case using local custom and rules of conduct as his guide. This system, known today as stare decisis
“to stand by decided cases” was how the early courts determined the outcome of
future cases.
Courts were bound to follow the law
established in previous cases unless higher authority, the king or the pope,
overruled the law.
COMMON LAW
The present English system of law came
into existence during the reign of Henry II (1154-1189).
He used traveling judges, better known as
circuit judges, who heard cases that previously had been under the jurisdiction
of local courts.
Professional jurists could be found in
three central royal courts - The
Exchequer, King’s Bench, and Common Pleas – and their judges developed a
reputation for fairness and the ability to systematize the law across the land.
Juries began to develop about this time
Royal prosecutors were established as key
players in the court proceedings
Few formal procedures existed at this
time and both the judge and the prosecutor felt free to intimidate witnesses
and jurors when they considered it necessary
Common law refers to a law applied to all
subjects of the land without regard for geographic or social differences
As best they could, the judges began to
apply a national law instead of the law
that held sway only in local jurisdictions.
As time went on, judicial decisions began
to be written and published, allowing judicial precedents to be established and
more concrete examples of common law decisions to emerge
Cases and decisions eventually produced a
fixed body of legal rules and principles, or case law.
Common Law and Statutory Law – when the situation required it , the
English Parliament enacted legislation to supplement the judge-made common
law. Violations of these laws are
referred to as statutory crimes.
Statutory laws usually reflect existing
social conditions.
Other statutory laws dealt with issues of
morality.
Common Law and Statutory Law in America – after the colonies acquired
their independence, they adapted and changed English law to fit their
needs.
State legislatures standardized
common-law crimes by putting them into statutory form in criminal codes.
Conversion to statutory law allowed
common-law principles to be modified and modernized
CLASSIFICATION OF LAW
Crimes and Torts – two broad categories
of law are criminal and civil with civil law covering all law other than
criminal law, including property law, contract law, and tort law.
Tort is a civil action in which an
individual asks to be compensated for personal harm, either physical or mental
The standard of evidence for a finding is
less in civil cases, where proof is a mere preponderance of the evidence as
opposed to beyond a reasonable doubt in criminal cases
Because some torts are similar to some
criminal acts, a person can possibly be held both criminally and civilly liable
for one action.
Both criminal and civil law attempt to control
people’s behavior by setting limits on what acts are permissible; and both
accomplish this through state-imposed sanctions.
The main purpose of criminal law is to
give the state the power to protect the public from harm by punishing
individuals whose actions threaten the social order; the main concern of tort law is to compensate victims for harm
that others have inflicted upon them.
In a criminal action, the state initiates
the legal proceedings by bringing charges and prosecuting the violator; the
state can impose punishment of imprisonment, probation, which is community
supervision by the court; or a fine payable to the state.
In a civil action, the injured party
files the action and if the action is successful, the injured individual usually
receives financial compensation for the harm done.
Felonies and Misdemeanors – further
classification of criminal law by the seriousness of the offense
Felony – is a serious offense punishable
by death or imprisonment for more than a year in a state prison
Misdemeanor – a minor or petty crime
punished by less than one year in a local county facility, a jail or house of
correction
Mala in Se and Mala Prohibitum
Mala in se crimes are rooted in the core
values inherent in Western civilization, which are referred to as natural
law. These values are designed to
control behaviors that have traditionally been considered violations of morals.
Mala prohibitum crimes are statutory
crimes that violate laws that reflect current public opinion and social
values. These crimes are acts that
conflict with contemporary standards of morality
FUNCTIONS OF CRIMINAL LAW
Enforcing Social Control – The primary
purpose of criminal law is to control the behavior of people within its
jurisdiction.
Criminal law is a written statement of
rules to which people must conform – the universally followed behavior is
referred to as the mores or serious norms
The folkways are the unwritten rules of
conduct, such as customs and conventions
Those in political power rely on criminal
law to formally prohibit behaviors believed to either threaten societal
well-being or challenge their own authority.
Discouraging Revenge – By delegating
enforcement to others, criminal law controls an individual’s need to seek
revenge or vengeance against those who violated his or her rights.
Expressing Public Opinion and Morality –
criminal law reflects constantly changing public opinions and moral values
Criminal law has the power to define the
boundaries of moral and immoral behavior
Has proven difficult to legally control
public morality because of the problems associated with gauging the will of the
majority; respecting the rights of the minority; and enforcing laws that many
people consider trivial or self-serving.
Deterring Criminal Behavior – criminal
law has a social control function to control, restrain, and direct human
behavior through its ability to punish and correct law violations.
The threat of punishment associated with
violating the law is designed to prevent crimes before they occur.
Punishing Wrongdoing – the deterrent
power of criminal law is tied to the authority it gives the state to sanction
or punish offenders
Those violating mores and folkways can receive
social disapproval, whereas criminal law violators are subject to physical
coercion and punishment.
Criminal law is society’s instrument of
punishment; it serves as a measure of the public’s idea of right and wrong.
Maintaining Social Order – all legal
systems are designed to support and maintain the boundaries of the social
system they serve.
THE LEGAL DEFINITION OF A CRIME
To fulfill the legal definition of crime, all elements of a crime
must be proven: the criminal act and
the criminal intent
Actus Reus – 1. the criminal act itself; the action
must be voluntary for an act to be considered illegal; 2. a person must act when there is a legal
obligation to do so; failure to act is a criminal offense.
The central issue is the voluntary action
and whether the individual has control over his or her actions.
The duty to act is a legal duty, not just
a moral duty
The relationship of parties based on
status (parent/child; spouses)
Imposition by statute
Contractual relationship
Mens Rea – for an act to constitute a
crime, it must be done with criminal intent (carrying out an act intentionally,
knowingly, and willingly
Most crimes require general intent, or an
intent to commit the crime.
Specific intent is an intent to
accomplish a specific purpose as an element of the crime
Transferred intent occurs when the
original intent is transferred to the unintended victim.
Negligence involves a person’s acting
unreasonably under the circumstances resulting in harm.
Constructive intent occurs when the
intent that underlies an unintentional act results in harm to another with the
finding of criminal liability
Strict-liability crimes occur when the
person accused is guilty simply by doing what the statute prohibits; intent
does not enter the picture.
CRIMINAL DEFENSES
Defendants of a crime must refute one or
more elements of the crime of which they have been accused by:
Arguing they were falsely accused and
that the real culprit has yet to be identified.
May claim that although they engaged in
the criminal act of which they are accused, they lacked the intent needed to be
found guilty of the crime.
Excuses
- excuse criminal actions by
claiming he or she lacked the capacity to form sufficient intent to be held
criminally responsible (insanity, intoxication, and ignorance)
Another type of defense is justification
– the individual admits committing the criminal act but maintains that the act
was justified and that he or she should therefore not be held criminally
liable. (justified under the
circumstances – necessity, duress, self-defense, and entrapment)
Ignorance or Mistake – ignorance of the
law is no excuse; ignorance does not excuse evil intent; can be an excuse when
there was no intent to violate the law and unknowingly did so (buying goods you
did not know were stolen) or if the mistake is reasonable (some statutory rape)
Insanity – a defense to criminal
prosecution in which the defendant’s state of mind negates his or her criminal
responsibility
Insanity is a legal category in which
psychiatric testimony is to prove a defendant legally sane.
A person found to be legally insane at
the time of trial is placed in the custody of state mental health authorities
until diagnosed as sane.
U.S. courts usually use the M’Naghten
Rule or the substantial capacity test
M’Naghten Rule is known as the
right-wrong test; didn’t know what he was doing or didn’t know it was wrong.
M’Naghten criticized due to confusion of
terms “disease of the mind” and “ know the nature and quality of the act”
having never been properly clarified; mental health professionals have pointed
out that rule is unrealistic and narrow in that it does not cover situations in
which people know right from wrong but cannot control their actions.
Irresistible impulse test – could not
control his conduct at the time of the crime; if jury finds a person acted
under an irresistible impulse, the defendant would be placed in a mental health
facility until considered capable of controlling his or her behavior.
Substantial capacity test is essentially
a combination of M’Naghten and Irresistible impulse requiring only a lack of
substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of the conduct or to
control it, which must be proven by the prosecution beyond a reasonable doubt
Intoxication – which in legal terms is
defined as the taking of alcohol or drugs, is not generally considered a
defense
Duress – defense to a crime when the
defendant commits an illegal act because the defendant, or a third person, has
been threatened by another with death or serious bodily harm if the act is not
performed.
Necessity- as a defense is applied in
situations in which a person must break the law to avoid a greater evil caused
by natural forces (storms, earthquakes, or illness) This defense is available only when committing the crime is the
lesser of two evils.
Self-Defense – involves a claim that the
defendant’s actions were a justified response to the victim’s provocative
behavior.
Self-defense can be used to protect one’s
person or property.
An individual is justified in using force
against another to protect himself or herself.
Defendants must reasonably believe that
they are in danger of death or great harm and that it is necessary for them to
use force to protect themselves.
The amount of force used must be no
greater than that necessary to prevent personal harm.
Entrapment – another defense that excuses
a defendant from criminal liability.
Defendant maintains that law enforcement
officers induced him or her to commit a crime that the defendant would not have
committed had it not been for trickery, persuasion, or fraud on the officers’
part
Law enforcement officers plan a crime,
implant the criminal idea in a person’s mind, and pressure that person into
doing the act is different than an officer providing an opportunity for the
crime to be committed and the defendant being willing and ready to do the act
Exotic Defenses – based on preexisting
conditions or syndromes with which their clients were afflicted
THE UNIFORM CRIME REPORT
FBI receives and compiles records from
over 17,000 police departments serving a majority of the U.S. Population
Its major unit of analysis involves the
index crimes, or Part I crimes: murder
and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault,
burglary, larceny, arson, and motor vehicle theft
The FBI tallies and annually publishes
the number of reported offenses by city, county, standard metropolitan
statistical area, and geographical divisions of the U.S.
The UCR also shows the number and
characteristics (age, race, and gender) of individuals who have been arrested
for these and all other crimes, except traffic violations.
Collecting the Uniform Crime Report
Each month law enforcement agencies
report the number of index crimes known to them – data are collected from
records of all crime complaints that victims, officers who discovered the
infractions, or other sources reported to these agencies.
Unfounded or false criminal complaints
are eliminated from actual count
Each month law enforcement agencies
report how many crimes are cleared:
when at least one person is arrested, charged, and turned over to the
court for prosecution; or by exceptional means, when some element beyond police
control precludes the physical arrest of an offender
Traditionally, slightly more than 20% of
all reported index crimes are cleared by arrest each year.
Violent crimes are more likely to be
solved than property crimes because police devote more resources to the more
serious acts – witnesses are frequently available to identify offenders, and in
many instances the victim and offender were previously acquainted.
Crime rates per 100,000 are computed: Number of reported crimes/Total U.S.
Population x 100,000 = Rate/100,000
How Accurate Are the Uniform Crime Reports?
Three main areas of concern about UCR
accuracy include:
reporting practices (victims of many serious crimes do not report
these incidents to police because do not trust police or have confidence in
their ability to solve crimes, do not have insurance and believe it is useless
to report theft, victims fear reprisal)
findings indicate that the UCR date may significantly
under-represent the total number of annual criminal events
law enforcement practices
(the way police departments record and report criminal and delinquent activity
also affects the validity of UCR statistics)
how law enforcement agencies interpret
the definitions of index crimes may also affect reporting practices
some local police departments make
systematic errors in UCR reporting and count an arrest only after a formal
booking procedure
in some cases police officials may
deliberately alter reported crimes to improve their department’s public image
what appears to be a rising crime rate by
be an improved police record-keeping ability
and methodological problems
no federal crimes reported
reports are voluntary and vary in accurateness
and completeness
not all police departments submit reports
if an offender commits multiple crimes,
only the most serious is recorded – many lesser crimes go unreported
SELF-REPORT SURVEYS
Viewed as a mechanism to get at the “dark
figures of crime”, the figures missed by official statistics
Provide an appreciable amount of
information about offenders that cannot be found in official statistics
Indicate that the number of people who
break the law is far greater than the number projected by official statistics
Are Self-Reports Accurate? – some people
may exaggerate their criminal acts, forget some of them, or be confused about
what is being asked
The “Missing Cases” – self-reports may
measure only non-serious , occasional delinquents while ignoring hard-core
chronic offenders who may be institutionalized and unavailable for
self-reports.
VICTIM SURVEYS
The National Crime Victimization Survey –
the number of criminal victimizations was far higher than previously believed because
many victims failed to report crime to police, fearing retaliation or official
indifference
Is the NCVS Valid? – suffers from some
methodological problems of reporting
Are Crime Statistics Sources Compatible?
– numbers are different but patterns and trends are similar
CRIME TRENDS
Trends in Violent Crime – violence
decreased during the 1990s, reversing a long trend of skyrocketing increases
Trends in Property Crime – property crime
has declined in recent years
Changes in population age distribution
has the greatest influence on crime trends
CRIME PATTERNS
The Ecology of Crime – Patterns in the
crime rate seem to be linked to temporal and ecological factors
First day of the month has highest crime
rates
Warm summer months of July and August
have the most reported crimes occurring
People outside during warm weather make
themselves targets more
Homes left vacant during summer more
making them more vulnerable to property crime
Crime rates increase with rising
temperatures and then begin to decline around 85 degrees when it may be too hot
for physical exertion, except during long periods of highly uncomfortable
weather which is related to homicide rates.
Large urban areas have by far the highest
violence rates
Southern states used to have the highest
rates in almost all categories of crime, but the western states now have the
dubious distinction of having the highest crime and violence rates.
Social Class and Crime – the classes
report similar amounts of crime, though lower income people are more likely to
be arrested, convicted, and incarcerated.
Age and Crime – age is inversely related
to criminality
Gender and Crime – male crime rates much
higher than those of females
Race and Crime – African Americans are more
likely to be arrested for serious violent crimes though little difference in
the self-reported crimes is evident