CRIM 2650 Final: CRIM2650 FALL LECTURE
4 Dec 2013
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Document Summary
Csi effect: motion that jurors have inflated expectations about value of forensic evidence in criminal trials. Theory as perspective a way of seeing the world as argument for seeing the world in that particular way. Theory as way of speaking about crime, criminal justice. Conjecture based on limited amount of knowledge. Set of principles used to explain a group of facts/phenomena. What does theory mean in criminology: criminology is an interdiscipline no singular approach to theory, no actual agreement about which criminology theory should be applied. 3 approaches to theory meant to address different research questions, has a different standard of proof: scientific theory facts. Criminology as social science, modeled on physical sciences. General universal laws to describe human behaviour. Reduce phenomenon to variables & measure correlations between variables. Good scientific theory has good predictive power ability to generate hypothesis to test theory against immune facts. Measuring statistics (ucr police statistics: normative theory values. Mala in se informal, serious (violent).
