Measuring Crime - Lecture Notes Flashcards

Vocabulary-based flashcards covering the measurement of crime, methodology, and various reporting tools discussed in the CRCJ 1000A lecture.

Validity

A measure of methodology asking whether the tool actually measures crime as intended.

Reliability

A measure of methodology focused on how consistent the results are.

Crime rate

The official measure of crime based on police-reported data only, calculated as the amount of crime divided by population, multiplied by $100,000$.

Dark Figure of Crime

Crime that is not reported and does not come to the attention of the police; overall, only $30\%$ of crimes are reported.

Sexual Assault Reporting Rate

According to the transcript, only $5-10\%$ of sexual assaults are reported to the police.

Report-sensitive crimes

A factor affecting crime rates where the percentage of crime actually reported to police varies.

Policing-sensitive crimes

A factor affecting crime rates based on the police's decision to investigate specific types of crimes.

Court administration changes

A factor affecting crime rates involving changes in judicial processes, such as the introduction of the YCJA 2003.

Definition-sensitive crimes

A factor affecting crime rates where changes in the legal definition of an offense, such as sexual assault, impact the data.

Media-sensitive crimes

A factor affecting crime rates where intensive media attention feeds and drives public interest in specific crimes.

The crime funnel

A concept illustrating the decline in cases from total incidents ($2,052,191$ in 2014) to federal jurisdiction admissions ($4,781$ in 2014-15).

Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

An official police-reported statistics tool created in 1962 that collects data on the number of offences, clearance status, and persons charged.

UCR Limitations

Includes differences in how various police agencies record incidents, such as downplaying incidents, recording only one crime, or manipulating data.

Victimization Surveys

Questionnaires administered to a sample of the Canadian public asking if they have experienced various crimes in the past $12$ months.

Self-Report Surveys

Data collection where large groups (often students) voluntarily disclose prior offences, used to tap into the dark figure and test causes of crime.

Porterfield (1943)

The earliest self-report study utilized to understand people who engage in criminal behaviour.

Observational Accounts

Also known as participant observation, this method involves researchers interacting face-to-face with individuals in natural settings to gather rich, descriptive data.

YCJA 2003

Used as an example of a court administration change that can affect crime rates.