Chapter 2 Crime Statistics

Front 1

Demographics

Back 1

The characteristics of population groups, usually expressed in statistical form.

Front 2

Statistical school

Back 2

A criminological perspective with roots in the early 19th century that seeks to uncover correlations between crime rates and other types of demographic data.

Front 3

Uniform Crime Report Survey

Back 3

A summation of crime statistics tallied annually by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS) and consisting primarily of data on crimes reported to the police

Front 4

Victimization Survey

Back 4

First conducted as the Canadian Urban Victimization Survey in 1981 by Statistics Canada and then every five years since 1988 as part of the General Social Survey. It provides data on surveyed households reporting that they had been affected by crime.

Front 5

What is the purpose of the UCR system?

Back 5

- A standardized procedure across jurisdictions for collecting and reporting police crime data.

Then the CCJS makes these data available to the public.

Front 6

What is the specifics of a crime event that UCR collects?

Back 6

Age, sex, type of charge, substances, relation to accused, injury, weapon, target, property type, etc...

Front 7

In a police report, what does the term "Cleared by charge" mean?

Back 7

It means the person has or will be charged. (There was enough evidence to charge

Front 8

In a police report, what does the term "Cleared otherwise" mean?

Back 8

It means the officer cannot, or does not charge, despite there being enough evidence. (Why isn't the offender charged? The complaint drops charges, police discretion)

Front 9

What is clearance rate?

Back 9

Refers to the proportion of incidents that are cleared by charge (or cleared otherwise) divided by the total number of actual criminal incidents

Front 10

Crime rate

Back 10

Crime per capita based on the number of recorded crimes calculated per 100 000 population.

Front 11

Dark figure of crime

Back 11

The portion of criminal activity that goes unreported and/or undetected by official sources

Front 12

What some reason why some crimes aren't reported to the police?

Back 12

1. The victim's fear of the perpetrator

2. the victim's shame

3. the victim's fear of not being believed; and

4. the victim's fear of further participation in the justice system (ie exposing himself to the offender in the court)

Front 13

Self-report study

Back 13

A data collection method requiring subjects to reveal their own participation in criminal behaviour

Front 14

What is the Canadian Urban Victimization (CUV)?

Back 14

- Do not depend on crime being reported to the police.

- Instead, it's a sampled through confidential interviews with members of randomly selected households across the country.

- conducted every 5 years (part of the General Social Survey (GSS)

Front 15

CUVS studies fear of crime in a community, why?

Back 15

Studying fear lets us see how scared the media has made us.

-ie, CUVs shows 40% of respondents felt unsafe in their own neighbourhood in the evening. Especially, if you are a female in low-income neighbourhood.

Front 16

Limitations of CUV?

Back 16

- Crimes told are not verified (they could lie)

- remembering incidents

- placing incidents in time

- people may over or under report

- concerns about confidentiality

- under 15 of age can't contribute to CUV

Front 17

Correlation

Back 17

A causal, complementary, or reciprocal relationship between two measurable variables.

Front 18

Limitations of Self-report?

Back 18

- Honesty

- Memory

- Concern about confidentiality

- Anonymity

Front 19

Correlations of crime

Back 19

Those variables observed to be related to criminal activity such as age, sex and gender, ethnicity, and social class.

Front 20

Social Dimensions of crime

Back 20

A term used to describe aspects of crime and victimization as they relate to socially significant attributes by which groups are defined and according to which individuals are assigned group membership.