2266 Intro To Crim Class #3

Front 1

UCR - 1

Back 1

- aggregate crimes rates only
- no details
- publicly available

Front 2

UCR - 2

Back 2

- more details
- restricted access

Front 3

The "Dark Figure of Crime"

Back 3

The crimes that are excluded from UCR official data.

Front 4

Advantages of the UCR

Back 4

- nationwide crime statistics
- inexpensive to obtain
- allows comparisons across time and place.
- can be linked to other government data sources.

Front 5

Disadvantages of the UCR

Back 5

- emphasizes conventional street crimes
- dark figure of crime is a major bias

Front 6

Advantages of Victimization Surveys

Back 6

- study the "dark figure"
- more information about the victims
- more adequate to study some crime types that are systematically misreported in the UCR: family/partner violence, sexual assault

Front 7

Disadvantages of Victimization Surveys

Back 7

- memory decay, telescoping and misreporting data
- refusal to participate in the survey
victimizations for serious crimes are relatively rare.
- does not interview nonresident victims (incarcerated people, the homeless, etc.)
- limited information about offenders

Front 8

Advantages of Self-Report Crime Surveys

Back 8

- avoid the "dark figure" of official data
- very relevant source of information
- includes much more information about the offenders than official UCR data.
- can sometimes be linked to other data regarding offenders.

Front 9

Disadvantages of Self-Report Crime Surveys

Back 9

- memory decay and telescoping
- tend to sample limited groups that are not representative of the larger population
- social desirability bias (overeport some behaviours, undereport others)

Front 10

Causal Relationship of Crime

Back 10

1. the causal effect precedes crime
2. that a change in the cause variable with lead to a predictable change in crime.

Front 11

Correlate Relationship of Crime

Back 11

A correlate of crime is only statistically associated with crime, but is not necessarily a cause.

Front 12

Deterministic Causality

Back 12

The causal effect works all the time; it is a natural principle.

Front 13

Probabilistic Causality

Back 13

The causal effect increases or decreases the probability of an outcome.

Front 14

Clinical Prediction

Back 14

Highly trained psychologists interview offenders, review their files, and provide their views about the risk of future criminal behaviours.

Front 15

Actuarial Prediction

Back 15

Offenders' characteristics and prior criminal behaviours are used with statistical tables to calculate an average risk of future criminal behaviours.