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Chapter Two
The Nature and
Extent of Crime
Crime data
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Helps formulate theories that explain onset of
crime
Helps devise social policies that facilitate its
control or elimination
Accurate data is necessary to assess the
nature and extent of crime, to track changes
in the crime rate and to measure the
individual and social factors influencing
criminality
Primary Sources of Crime Data
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Surveys and official records which are
collected, compiled and analyzed by
government agencies.
One such source is the Uniform Crime Report
(UCR) which is data collected by the FBI from
local law enforcement agencies.
UCR
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This includes both crimes reported to, and the number of
arrests made by local law enforcement departments.
The major unit of analysis involves index, or Part I
crimes:
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Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter
Forcible rape
Robbery
Aggravated assault
Burglary
Larceny
Arson
Motor vehicle thefts
UCR
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In addition, the UCR shows the number and
characteristics (age, race and gender) of
individuals who have been arrested for these
and all other crimes (except traffic violations
or Part II crimes).
The UCR Methods to Express Crime
Data
1. the number of crimes reported to the police
and arrests made are in raw figures
2. crime rates per 100,000 people are
computed.
3. changes in rates of crime over time is
computed.
Clearance Rates
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Each month law enforcement agencies report
how many crimes were cleared.
Clearance is done in two ways:
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When at least one person is arrested, charged
and turned over for prosecution; or
By exceptional means, when some element
beyond police control precludes the physical
arrest of an offender.
Crime Clearances
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A little more than 20% of all reported index
crimes are cleared by arrest each year.
More serious crimes, such as murder and
rape are cleared at much higher rates than
less serious property crimes, such as larceny.
Why the difference?
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The media—it gives more attention to serious
violent crimes so police devote more time
and resources to these investigations.
Prior association—the victims and attackers
of many violent crimes know each other,
often making investigations simpler.
Why the difference?
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Interaction—violent crime victims and
offenders interact, even if they have no prior
association, making identification easier.
Serious violent crimes often produce physical
evidence which can be used to identify
suspects.
Validity of the UCR
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There are three main areas of concern about
the accuracy of the UCR.
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1. reporting practices
2. law enforcement practices
3. methodological problems
Reporting practices
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Victims of many serious crimes, less than
40%, report incidents to police; therefore,
these crimes don’t become part of the UCR.
Law enforcement practices
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The way police departments record and
report criminal and delinquent activity affect
the validity of the UCR statistics.
Departments differ in how a crime is
categorized.
Some departments make systematic errors in
reporting.
Some alter reports to make the department
“look better”.
Methodological issues
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Issues include: federal crimes are often not
reported, not all departments submit reports
(submission is voluntary), only the most
serious of multiple crimes by an offender is
recorded, each act is listed as a single
offense for some crimes, but not others.
The complex scoring procedure used in the
UCR means that many serious crimes are not
counted.
National Incident-Based Reporting
System (NIBRS)
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More reliable as this program collects data on
each reported crime incident, including a brief
account of each incident and arrest, as well
as information about the victim and the
offender.
This system involves 46 specific offenses,
including the eight Part I offenses and 11
lesser offenses.
Survey Research
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Sampling—process of selecting for study a
limited number of subjects who are
representative of entire groups sharing
similar characteristics or the population.
Cross-sectional survey—representative of all
members of society. Useful and costeffective technique for measuring
characteristics of large numbers of people.
National Crime Victimization Survey
(NCVS)
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Comprehensive, nationwide survey of victimization
in the U.S. provides details of crime incidents,
victims and trends.
Collects information on crimes suffered by
individuals and households, whether or not those
crimes were reported to law enforcement.
Estimates the proportion of each crime type reported
to law enforcement.
Summarizes the reasons that victims give for
reporting or not reporting.
National Crime Victimization Survey
(NCVS)
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In addition, the survey gives information
about victims (age, sex, race, ethnicity,
marital status, income and educational level),
offenders (sex, race, approximate age and
victim-offender relationship), and the crimes
(time and place of occurrence, use of
weapon, nature of injury and economic
consequences).
National Crime Victimization Survey
(NCVS)
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In addition questions cover the experiences
of victims with the criminal justice system,
self-protective measures used by victims and
possible substance abuse by offenders.
Advantages of NCVS
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Can estimate the total amount of annual
crimes, a more accurate assessment of the
nation’s crime problem.
Can help to create an understanding why
crimes are not reported to police and whether
the type and nature of the crime influences
whether the police will ever know it
happened.
Disadvantages of NCVS
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Methodological problems include
overreporting, underreporting, inability to
record personal criminal activity of those
interviewed, sampling errors, inadequate
question format that invalidates responses.
Self-Report Surveys
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Persons are asked—usually anonymously to
describe recent and lifetime participation in
criminal activity.
Contain questions about attitudes, values and
behaviors
Most often focused on juvenile delinquency,
can be used for histories of other groups, i.e.,
inmates, drug users.
Monitoring the Future (MTF) Study
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This study involves high school students and
is the national standard to measure
substance abuse trends of American teens.
MTF data indicate that the number of people
who break the law is far greater than the
number projected by official statistics.
This data shows that offenders also are
involved in various crimes and deviance,
rather than just one specialty.
Criticisms of Self-Reports
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People may not admit illegal acts.
Comparisons between groups can be
misleading.
There are always persons “missing” during
self-reporting surveys which may skew the
results.
Reporting accuracy differs among racial,
ethnic and gender groups.
Secondary Sources of Crime Data
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Cohort research—observing a group of
people who share a like characteristic over
time.
Retrospective cohort study—simpler and less
expensive, an intact cohort from the past and
collect data from educational, family, police
and hospital records in order to find trends for
that cohort.
Experimental Research
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Criminologists manipulate or intervene in the
lives of subjects in order to see the outcome
or the effect of that intervention.
Three elements are present: random
selection of subjects, a control or comparison
group, and an experimental condition.
These experiments are rare as they are
difficult, expensive, often causing ethical and
legal roadblocks, and requiring long follow-up
periods to verify results
Experimental Research
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Researchers often use a quasi-experimental
design, following one group and comparing
them to a matched group, without random
assignment.
Observational (known as “field” research) and
interview research is done in-depth and on a
small number of subjects.
Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review
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Meta-analysis—gathering data from previous
studies and grouping it together in order to
indicate relationships.
Systematic review—collecting findings from
previous scientific studies, appraising and
synthesizing the evidence and using this
collective evidence to address a particular
scientific question.
Data Mining
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This technique uses multiple advanced
computational methods to analyze large data
sets.
This is helpful in identifying significant
patterns, trends and relationships, and
prediction of future events or behaviors not
often detected in traditional techniques.
Crime Mapping
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Crime maps display crime locations or
concentrations and can be used to chart
trends in criminal activity.
A federal program aiding local law
enforcement in analyzing crime series and
patterns is CATCH (Crime Analysis Tactical
Clearing House).
Crime Rate Trends
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These trends are influenced by social,
economic, personal and demographic factors.
Social factors include the age structure of
society (high crime rates among teens).
The influence of the state of the economy is
confusing as multiple variables exist making
measurement of the link between economy
and crime rates difficult.
Additional Influences on Crime Rates
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Abortion—selective abortion (now that
abortion is legal) of women most at risk to
have youth who would engage in criminal
activity and improved child-rearing are
possible links between lower crime rates and
abortion.
Guns—as the availability of firearms
increases, so does the violent crime rates.
Additional Influences on Crime Rates
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Gangs—increased number of gangs and
gang members creates a rise in criminal
activity, especially in violent crimes.
Drug Use—increases in illegal drug usage
and selling and trafficking drugs also appears
to increase violence
Media—violent media correlates with
aggressive behaviors which often increases
“real-life” violence.
Additional Influences on Crime Rates
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Medical technology—quality of health care
may impact murder rates. With increased
technology, victims of violence are more likely
to survive than in the past several decades.
Justice policy—large numbers of law
enforcement officers added to agencies and
tough laws may significantly contribute to a
reduction in the crime rate.
Additional Influences on Crime Rates
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Social and cultural conditions on a macrolevel, such as the number of single-parent
families, high school dropout rates, racial
conflict and the prevalence of teen
pregnancies have a powerful influence on
crime rates.
Immigration—data has shown that
immigrants actually commit less crime and
are less likely to be incarcerated than nativeborn.
Trends in Crime
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Violent crimes may be increasing again after
a downward trend.
Property crimes have decreased and seem to
be continuing that trend.
Self-reported crime results appear stable;
however, the Monitoring the Future (MTF),
data assessing criminal activity of high school
seniors, the crime problem is much greater
than the FBI data indicates.
The future of crime trends is dependent on
the economy, technological change and
social factors.
Crime Patterns and the Nature of
Crime
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Ecology of crime includes day, season and
climate:
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Weather effects (such as temperature swings)
may have an impact on violent crime rates.
Regional differences (urban v rural areas, area of
the country) probably can be explained by
economic differences.
Firearms
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Use of firearms—some criminologists believe
that the proliferation of handguns significantly
raises the rate of violence while others
believe that personal gun use acts as a crime
deterrent.
Handgun control is quite controversial; some
believe that possession of handguns should
be outlawed; others refer to the Second
Amendment and the “right to bear arms”.
Social Class, Socioeconomic
Conditions and Crime
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Crime is inherently a lower-class
phenomenon as they have the greatest
incentive to commit crimes.
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Instrumental crimes—people unable to obtain
desired goods and services may resort to illegal
activities to get them.
Repressive crimes—people living in poverty
engage in disproportionate amounts of crimes
such as assaults and rapes due to rage,
frustration and anger against society
Social Class, Socioeconomic
Conditions and Crime
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An explanation for the relationship between
official crime and social class may be a
function of law enforcement practices, not
actual criminal behavior patterns.
Self-reports indicate that police may be more
likely to arrest lower-class offenders and treat
affluent more leniently.
Nonetheless, the association between class
and crime is quite complex.
Other Factors
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Age and crime—younger people commit
more crime than older individuals.
Aging out of crime—deviance in youth is
fueled by the need for money and sex and
reinforced by close relationships with peers
like themselves. Most older adults conform to
conventional lifestyles.
Gender and Crime
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Male crime rates much higher than those of
females. This difference is based on a
number of theories:
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Lombroso’s masculinity hypothesis held that
some delinquent females (physically and
emotionally) closely resemble males.
Chivalry hypothesis holds that much female
criminality is hidden because of the culture’s
protective and benevolent attitude toward women.
Gender Socialization and
Development
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Girls are socialized to be less aggressive
than boys and are supervised more closely
by parents.
Cognitive differences may contribute to
behavioral variations, as girls are encouraged
to be more empathic about other people and
avoid harming them.
Girls are more verbally proficient and may
develop social skills to help deal with conflict
without violence.
Gender Socialization and
Development
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Liberal feminist theory—the lower crime rate for
women can be explained by their “second-class”
economic and social position.
Gender based crime rates are still significant, but
females seem to be “closing the gap”.
Race and Crime
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Minorities are involved in a disproportionate
share of criminal activity.
Suspects who are poor, minority and male
are more likely to be arrested than suspects
who are white, affluent and female.
In some areas, young African-American
males are treated more harshly by the
criminal and juvenile justice systems than
members of any other group.
Race and Crime
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Racial threat hypothesis—as the percentage
of minorities in the population increases so
does the amount of social control that police
direct at minority group members.
Disparities in justice policy result in widely
disproportionate makeup of the prison
population—the highest rate is among black
males aged 20-34.
Race and Economic and Social
Disparity
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Minorities are often forced to live in high
crime areas where risk of victimization is
significant.
Minorities face more social isolation and
economic deprivation than the white majority,
adding to a sense of frustration and failure.
Family dissolution in minority communities is
thought to be tied to low employment among
African-American males, which places
additional stress on the family.
Chronic Offenders/Criminal Careers
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Chronic or career criminals--a small group of
criminal offenders account for a majority of all
criminal offenses.
Delinquent chronic offenders, “the chronic 6
percent”, have the most dramatic amount of
delinquent behavior.
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Arrests and court experience did little to deter this
group.
Chronic Offenders/Criminal Careers
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Early onset—youth who have been exposed
to a variety of personal and social problems
at an early age are most at risk of repeat
offending.
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Characteristics that predict chronic offending
include: school behavior/performance, family
problems, substance abuse and deliquency.
Chronic Offenders/Criminal Careers
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Serious violent crime commission during
adolescence as well as early onset of
delinquent behavior account for “persistence
continuity of crime”.
These chronic offenders are the focus of
crime control policy, such as long periods of
incarceration and a “three strikes” policy
(conviction of a third offense requires serving
a mandatory life sentence).