Chapter 4

What is the significance of crime data for communities and individuals?

Crime data is important for police strategies, policy decisions, community programming, and personal safety in choosing places to live.

What are the pros and cons of using correctional data for measuring crime?

Pros: Provides numbers on incarcerated populations. Cons: Only accounts for convicted crimes and may not represent actual crime rates.

Define reliability in the context of measuring crime.

Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure, meaning different researchers will get the same results using the same method.

What does validity mean when measuring crime?

Validity refers to whether a measure accurately assesses what it intends to measure.

Describe the 'dark figure of crime'.

The dark figure of crime refers to incidents of crime that occur but are never reported to law enforcement.

What is the Uniform Crime Report (UCR)?

The UCR is a large dataset detailing every crime reported in Canada, aiming to provide crime rates per 100,000 people.

What is a major flaw of the Uniform Crime Reporting System?

It only includes police-reported crimes, potentially omitting numerous unreported incidents.

What do victimization surveys aim to uncover?

Victimization surveys aim to reveal the extent of crimes that are not reported to the police.

What is CompStat?

CompStat is a New York City Police Department accountability process introduced in the 1990s to help reduce crime through statistical analysis.

How do constructionist theorists view crime statistics?

They argue that crime statistics are influenced by societal attitudes and police activity, rather than being a straightforward reflection of crime levels.