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Chapter 5 Notes- Crime Statistics (Sources/Methods of Counting Crime)!

- Criminal Statistics:! - Gain an accurate measure of the extent and distribution of crime! - Enables police departments to allocate resources to fight crime because these statistics will show the “hot spots” for criminal behavior and the risk factors!

- Help police departments judge if crime prevention programs are working!

- Criminological Theories:! - Criminologists need an accurate measure of the nature and extent of crime to evaluate this utility!

- Victimization surveys and self-report studies of criminal behavior indicate that lower class people in the US are not necessarily more crime prone than other social classes! - An accurate measure of crime is important for citizens to have a reasonable estimate of their risks of criminal victimization! Counting Crime and Its Characteristics! 1) The use of official crime statistics compiled by police departments! 2) Self-report studies of one’s criminal behavior! 3) Surveys of crime victims! - Police Reports on Crime (Uniform Crime Report [UCR]): ! - FBI data based on police reports of crime that are submitted by police agencies across the country; Voluntary program! - Criminal acts are recorded and counted in a consistent/uniform way across different police departments! - “Part 1 Offenses” include violent crimes (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assaults) and property crimes (burglary, larceny theft, motor vehicle theft, arson)! - “Part 2 Offenses” include alcohol related offenses (DUI, liquor law violation, public drunkenness) and drug offenses! - UCR data provides estimates of the prevalence of particular crimes over time, the demographic characteristics of those arrested for crimes, and crime rates over different geographical units! - “Crime Rate Over Time” total number of particular crimes and dividing it by the population size! - “Correlates of Crime” crime rates vary across time and space! - “Gender Differences” males account for more of arrests than females! - “Age Differences” peak age for criminal behavior is 18-24! - “Racial Differences” blacks account for more arrests in violent crime than property crimes! Problems with UCR Data as an Accurate Measure of Crime! - Crimes known to the police are not representative of all crimes! - “Dark Figures of Crime” the gap between the amount of crimes known to the police and the true extent of crime! - National coverage problems (only cover 95% of police jurisdictions)! - Non-uniform reporting of UCR data across jurisdictions ! Video 8- Statistical Lies in Official Crime Data!

- Acts of omission/commission ! - Errors in reporting by public/police! - Errors in data coding/recording! - Acts of deliberate manipulation! - Political factors (ex: elections)! - Economic factors (ex: federal/state funding)! Video 9- NIBRS Data!

- National Incident Base Recording System! - 25% of US population, 31 NIBRS certified States! - Records crimes on all times of offenses not just serious ones like UCR! - Includes all types of victims and crimes! - Covers more crimes, topics, more complete data! - More time consuming to collect NIBRS data, more difficult processing!

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Chapter 6 Notes (Self-Reporting of Offending):!

- Due to bias in police reports on crime, criminologists resorted to asking people directly about their involvement in criminal activities!

- “Self Report Approach”! - Asking people directly about their involvement in criminal activities based on the fundamental assumption that offenders themselves are the single best source for information about the prevalence of criminal behavior! - Extremely important that self-report respondents feel that they can respond truthfully and anonymously to questions about their criminal activities! Video 10: Interpreting NCVS Data!

- Sample data to represent unknown population estimates of those victimized by crime! - Sampling error and sampling biases involved! - Computing victimization rates (number of crimes divided population rates)! - Patterns/measures in household “touched” by crime, primary measure of NCVS! - Most touched by property crime! Video 11: Lifetime Victimization Risks!

- Computations and assumptions! - Figure out probability for lifetime risk measurements of victimization! - Life risks for violent victimization! - Males 89% vs. Females 73%! - Age 12 (83%) vs. Age 30 (53%) vs. Age 60 (14%)! - Lifetime risks for property victimization! - Burglary 72% vs. Motor Vehicle Theft 19%! - This info conveys general idea of risks of being victimized by a particular type of crime!

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Chapter 7 Notes (National Victimization Surveys)!

- National Crime Victimization Surveys (NCVS) is the primary US victimization survey! - Have been conducted since the mid 70s and provide data based on 50,000 to 100,000 samples of household respondents !

- The data indicate the proportion of American households that have been “touched” by crime over 30% of the households in the 80s to less than 12% of the households in 2011!

- Major differences in “violent victimization rates” among different geographic and geographical groupings include the following:! - Violent victimization rates are higher for men than women for all types of violent crime except rape and sexual assaults! - For all violent offenses, Blacks have higher victimization rates than Whites and “Other” racial groups! - Hispanics have higher violent victimization risks than non-Hispanics for all offenses except aggravated assaults! - Persons aged 18-20 have the highest risks of violent victimization for all violent offenses except robbery. Persons aged 21-24 have the highest rate of robbery victimization.!

- Persons with a household income of less than $15,000 have the high rate of violent victimization for all types of violent crime.!

- Western and Midwestern states have the highest rates violent victimization.! - Urban areas have higher violent victimization rates than suburban and rural areas for all crimes except rate/sexual assault.!

- In general, urban areas with a population between 250,000 and 1 million have the highest risks of violent victimization for each type of offense!

- Rates for property victimization are higher for female-headed households than male headed households!

- For all types of property victimizations, households headed by Black residents have higher risks of victimization than other racial groups. So do Hispanics.!

- Households headed by juveniles and young adults (...