CRIM 1650 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Compstat, Moral Panic, Homicide

• School: York University
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRIM 1650
• Professor: James Williams

Document Summary

How crime is defined will influence how it is measured. Activities that are not defined as crimes will not be measured. Ex. woman underwent plastic surgery + ended up dying because of that procedure, but she never appeared in can"s homicide rate. The broader the definition, the greater the amount of crime. The narrower the definition, the smaller the amount of crime. Most commonly + widely reported crime statistic. Compiled by the can centre for justice statistics based on month reports from police forces across can. Includes crimes reported to police + outcomes of police patrols + investigations. From the ycja, only 2 specific offences are excluded. Crime rate - 10,000/population x # of incidents. Seriousness rule: if there"s more than one charge, only the most serious is recorded. This deflates the overall crime # + increases seriousness of crime. Developed to capture much larger volume of less serious offences. Gives more serious crimes a higher weighting.