SOC-3340 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Uniform Crime Reports
31 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Criminologists seek answers to questions about crime and punishment: to answer these questions, they need theory and evidence. What is a theory: theory: a system of ideas intended to explain something. Provide opportunities for logical and consistent explanations. Provide a roadmap to guide policy: theories should show a causal relationship. In order for a causal relationship, there must be: Temporal/causal ordering: hypothesized cause must precede outcome. Nonspuriousness: make sure something else can"t explain your association. Evidence and data: 3 common ways of measuring crime and delinquency: Government data: rates for different places and groups over time, provides an opportunity to test structural explanations of delinquency. Uniform crime reports: provides information on the number/types of crime reported, provides information on the number of arrests. Strengths: primary source for studying difference across geographic units and areas; best used to study serious violence.
