CRIM 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Homicide, Victimology, Security Alarm
8 Jun 2018
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Lecture 3: Measuring Crime & Victimology
Researching Crime
●direct observation in natural settings (ethnographic research: particular ethnic group or culture)
●Experimental (laboratories, usually have control and experiment group)
●police reports
●victimization surveys
●self-report surveys (Sacco and Kennedy, 2011)
Direct Observation
●Not necessarily the most efficient way to study crime
●Criminal events occur with relative infrequency
●Criminals spend a lot of their time doing the same things as non-criminals
The Secret Lives of Criminals
●Criminal behaviour tends to be secretive in nature
●Criminals go out of their way to avoid observation or detection
●However, if conducted successfully, ethnographic researchers may learn in-depth information
about criminal subcultures that are not usually amenable to investigation. SHOULD NOT BE
DISCARDED.
●A lot of ethnographic work done by the Chicago School, allowing to learn a lot about criminal
subcultures
Experimental Observations
●Issues of “informed consent” (if you tell the subjects what you’re going to do, they may refuse,
or alter their behaviour - can make it biased)
●If you encourage subjects to break the law, you may be breaking the law yourself
●Example: Edgewood Guinea Pigs (tried LSD on prisoners)
Experiments in Electricity
●Milgram (1974)
●Ethical issues
The Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
●“In Canada, police-recorded crime statistics have been collected and published since 1921”
●In 1962, Canada implemented the Uniform Crime Report (UCR): allows to capture more
information. Most useful tool to calculate crime rates.
●Most common data used by criminologists and criminal justice personnel when estimating crime
rates
●Introduction of UCR in 1962 was intended to standardize the collection and assembly of police-
reported crime statistics from across Canada
●Tried to obtain a complete, accurate picture of crime reported to police
●Statistics generated by UCR are less than perfect, due to variations in recording and interpreting
crime between different police departments (also takes into consideration how diligent the
officers are when reporting crime)
Distortions in UCR Measurements
●Police less likely to write an official report if:
○Situation can be dealt through a warning, confiscation of illicit goods
○There is a close relationship between victim and a perpetrator (e.g. siblings, friends)
●Police more likely to write an official report if:
○Victim is of higher social status; deferential toward police
○If victim is insistent that they want to press charges
○Police are engaged in anti-crime campaign, or order maintenance crackdown
The Dark Figure of Crime
●Dark Figure of Crime = amount of crime that is not reported by the police, and thus not reflected
in the Uniform Crime Report
●Dark Figure of Recording = If a reported crime is not recorded by the police. Police
decision-making can be influenced by a variety of factors. No report, so not reflected in UCR.
●According to the General Social Survey (a victimization survey conducted by Statistics Canada),
two-thirds (66%-69%) of crimes are not reported to the police
●Suggests that data collected by the UCR are “erroneous and incomplete” (Morden & Palys,
2014)
The Central City Phenomenon
●Crime rates reported in city centres may not accurately reflect the number of criminally-minded
people who actually live there
●Census Metropolitan Areas or CMAs often have a number of suburbs that are contiguous to- or
connected with- the city itself
●People from suburbs travel to city centre in search of excitement, entertainment or the
opportunity to commit crimes
●E.g. Vancouver: Stanley Cup Riot (2011)
The General Social Survey - second most common survey used
●Surveyed 19,500 households across Canada in 2009; surveyed 33,127 households in 2014
●Provides information on crimes that victims do not report to the police (estimated to be ⅔of all
crimes)
●Also provides reasons why victims do not report
Why Victims Don’t Report Crimes?
●According to the GSS, victims don’t report criminal victimization to the police because:
1. Feel the crimes aren’t important enough
2. Think there was nothing the police could do to help
3. Dealt with the crime in another manner
●Might not want the police to be involved due to the nature of the act or the context in
which it occurs
●When examining official crime statistics (the UCR), we should bear in mind that the majority of
crimes are not reported to the police; if they are reported
, they may not be recorded by the
police
Emotional and Behavioural Consequences
●2009 GSS reports that overwhelming majority of people in Canada (93%) feel safe from crime
●Majority of Canadians (60%) feel their neighbourhood is safer than other neighborhoods (might
not see anything happening in their neighbourhoods, media can have an effect on this)
●
Reactions to Crime
Document Summary
Direct observation in natural settings (ethnographic research: particular ethnic group or culture) Experimental (laboratories, usually have control and experiment group) Not necessarily the most efficient way to study crime. Criminals spend a lot of their time doing the same things as non-criminals whe sec(cid:392)et li(cid:434)es of c(cid:392)iminals. Criminal behaviour tends to be secretive in nature. Criminals go out of their way to avoid observation or detection. However, if conducted successfully, ethnographic researchers may learn in-depth information about criminal subcultures that are not usually amenable to investigation. A lot of ethnographic work done by the chicago school, allowing to learn a lot about criminal subcultures. Issues of informed consent (if you tell the subjects what you"re going to do, they may refuse, or alter their behaviour - can make it biased) If you encourage subjects to break the law, you may be breaking the law yourself. Example: edgewood guinea pigs (tried lsd on prisoners)
