LS227 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Uniform Crime Reports, Public Choice
Document Summary
Reliability - one of the standards against which the tools used to measure concepts are judged. Validity - the extent to which a tool or instrument (experiment, questionnaire ect) actually measures what it is supposed to. Should follow the uniform crime reporting rules when sending their information into stats. Crime rate - dividing the amount of crime by pop size and multiplying by 100 000. Standard rate of crime per 100 000 people. Police stats are more valid than rates of incarceration. More serious crimes result in a charge. Problem - stats can be interpreted in many ways. Administrative records - a collection of info about individual cases. Must be observed before stats are formed. How data are to be combined (on a city, provincial or national level) How to count units of data elements. Stats are important for research, policy development and public awareness. Prison stats are used to predict future prison populations and to build new facilities.