Knowledge of crime and deviance 3

ProPublica and the new York Times have questioned how

Valid are rape statistics and police investigations of the crime

• How can we measure something that is underreported and kept hidden by perpetrators?

Methods

• Experiments

• Survey research (cross-sectional and longitudinal)

• Victimization surveys

• Self-report studies (SRS)

• Personal interviews

• Observation and participant observation

• Case studies

• Content analysis

The experiment is a mode of scientific observation which involves

1. Taking action

2. Observing the consequences of that action

Falling down movie

• Refers to his mental state

• City really loud and hot

• City depicted as intolerable (he has problems like us)

In 1962 Calhoun conducted a fascinating experiment on the

Relationship between population density and deviant behaviour

• Observed the behaviour of 80 rats placed into a cage containing four connected cells

Calhouns findings

• two males guarded outer cells and maintain harems

• Two central cells, largely males, were the locus of all kinds of deviant behaviour. There he found:

1. Excessive aggression: cannabalism, infanticide, assault, and sexual assault

2. Excessive passivity: asexuality, careless mothering, zombie-like behaviour

Population density generates

Deviance

• Cities clearly create crime and deviance

Problems with Calhoun’s rat study

• Questionable whether rat behaviour can be so easily imputed to humans

• Humans choose to live in cities (rats did not choose to live in these cages)

• High density is a relative concept (Tokyo vs. Calgary)

• Sex ratio, well known that crime is largely a male behaviour

How many million crimes reported to police per year

2.5 million

What percent of crimes are violent

12%

Some criminologists will rely upon CUCRR’s in their

Analyses

Stages to the crime funnel

• All crime (detected/undetected)

• Detected crime (reported.unreported)

• Reported crime (founded/unfounded)

• Founded crime

• Crime taken to court (convicted/acquited)

• Convicted

• Incarcerated

The crime funnel uses

The State’s definition of crime

If a survey was delivered to a sample of Canadians, it would be considered

Cross-sectional

If a researcher performed a study over a period of time and included several surveys for comparison purposes (1981 and 1986 census)

Then it would be a longitudinal study

It is well known that official crime statistics do not

Reflect the reality of crime in Canada

People do not report crime for many reasons including whether the victim feels that the crime

• Was serious

• Whether police will take it seriously

• How significant the criminal event was to them

In attempt to validly measure crime, criminologists use

Victimization surveys

• Ask people if they had been victimized, and how they were victimized

Why are victimization surveys imperfect

• People might not remember all crimes

• Some people may be reluctant to admit victimization (child abuse)

• “Victimless” crimes cannot be reported

• Embezzlement, employee pilferage, pricefixing, and white-collar crimes?

Self-Report Data ask people whether they have

Engaged in crime and deviance

• People surprisingly honest

• Includes scales and items to detect deception (Uni student evaluation recodes)

Personal interviews can either be

• Structured or semi structured

What is the interviewer effect

Make you open up or clam up

Observation/participant observation studies

• When behaviour is readily apparent (improper turns, mall behaviour)

• Humphrey’s Tearoom trade

• Personal bias and ethical concerns

In order to understand “the Bertuzzi Incident”, a researcher might want to examine

• Player statistics

• History of punishment etc.

Content analysis involves the

• Systematic analysis of documents including audio or video recordings

• In order to better understand anorexia, a researcher might want to consider the content of beauty magazines

The method often depends upon the

Question posed

Qualitative (inductive) strategies are helpful in

Generating theories

Quantitative (deductive) methods are to

Verify existing knowledge

Unfortunately there may be times when we must rely upon

“bad sociology”

• ex: profs friend interested in carjacking

• Triangulation is the best way (use three methods)