SOCI-225 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Uniform Crime Reports, Sexual Assault, Columbine High School Massacre
15 May 2018
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Class #3 – May 3, 2018 – Ch.4
Counting Crime:
- Problems with methodology (The methods by which something is studied and analyzed)
You need to have a good random sample, instead of being very selective.
- Problems are often in terms of reliability and validity. *You have to be able to replicate your
test and be able to produce similar outcomes.
- Reliability: Refers to consistency of results over time.
- Validity: What you are actually testing, and if that is what your actually testing.
- Quantitative: Number-ey Qualitative: Wordy
Crime Rates:
- A more accurate way to study crime from place to place is to examine the crime rates.
- (Crime / # of pop) x 100,000 (For less frequent crimes x by 1,000,000)
Theory:
- Definition of Theory: Used to predict, describe, explain, and develop a broader awareness of
social issues related to crime in society.
- Theory is based on assumptions, which are preconceived notions about some aspect of the
world. Requires research to prove or disprove. (Correlation between crime and poverty)
Ideologies:
- Linked to a set of ideas and beliefs that act to uphold and justify an existing or desired
situation in society. Ideologies can be tainted by your own personal bias. (Glass ½ empty,
Glass ½ full)
Statistics on the Criminal Justice System:
- Administrative Records: Collects info from individual cases, basic level statistics. (Police
stations send all their information to Ottawa, this is where stats come from)
- Levels of Aggregation: Data coming together. Person punching someone in the face. Guy
was a jerk. No wait, he was drunk. Multiple points of data.
- Data Element: What is to be collected. (Someone was sexual assaulted, I want to know was
alcohol involved, the race of the victim, the gender…)
- Counting Procedures: Consensus on how to count units.
Canadian Criminal Justice Statistics:
- 1981 – Mandate to collect national data on crime and justice.
- Collects data from agencies across the country – helps with testing theories of crime
logically/nationally, making policy changes, evaluating programs, identifying patterns and
trends, keeping people informed.
We must take into consideration the Dark figure of crime
- The amount of unknown or unreported crime to police. (Cannot rely on crime stats to take
this into account)
- Criminologists have tried to find ways of reducing this number with victimization studies
and police have also tried to reduce the gap by strengthening community ties and
encouraging reporting of crimes.
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR):
- 1962 – By Statistics Canada and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
- Designed to provide a measure of reliability for crime statistics.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Class #3 may 3, 2018 ch. 4. Problems with methodology (the methods by which something is studied and analyzed) You need to have a good random sample, instead of being very selective. Problems are often in terms of reliability and validity. *you have to be able to replicate your test and be able to produce similar outcomes. Reliability: refers to consistency of results over time. Validity: what you are actually testing, and if that is what your actually testing. A more accurate way to study crime from place to place is to examine the crime rates. (crime / # of pop) x 100,000 (for less frequent crimes x by 1,000,000) Definition of theory: used to predict, describe, explain, and develop a broader awareness of social issues related to crime in society. Theory is based on assumptions, which are preconceived notions about some aspect of the world. Requires research to prove or disprove. (correlation between crime and poverty)
