Researching Crime

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture notes on researching crime, including methodology, research methods, data sources, ethical considerations, and theoretical approaches in criminology.

Methodology

The theoretical principles and framework behind different ways of carrying out research.

Research Methods

The tools or instruments used by researchers to gather their evidence.

Qualitative Methods

Sociological research techniques involving interviews, participant observation, and ethnography.

Quantitative Methods

Sociological research techniques using tools like surveys, statistical analysis, and prediction studies.

Mixed Methods Approaches

Research strategies that combine qualitative and quantitative methods in creative ways, often used in evaluation research and evidence-based policy making.

Experimental Criminology

A research approach that tests theories in the criminal justice field and makes policy recommendations based on 'hard' evidence of what works.

Social Psychology (in crime research)

An approach that analyzes the relationships between individuals and society, examining how individuals relate to each other, groups, and institutions, often using experimental and mixed-method approaches.

Criminological Data

Information about criminals, victims, law enforcers, sanctions, and rights, sourced from criminal justice agencies, mass media, charities, private companies, and international bodies.

'Awestruck' response to statistics

Treating statistics with reverence as if they represent the clear truth about an issue.

'Naïve' response to statistics

Being critical but still tending to accept statistics as 'hard facts'.

'Cynical' response to statistics

Being very suspicious about statistics, believing they are often flawed, manipulated, or used to mislead.

Critical approach to statistics

Developing a questioning perspective to evaluate the merits and limitations of statistics, understanding that complexity is lost in summarization and choices are made in measurement.

Official Criminal Statistics

Data primarily published by government departments responsible for criminal justice, such as the UK Home Office or Statistics Canada.

Crime Funnel

A concept illustrating that only a small proportion of potential crimes are recorded in official statistics, representing 'the tip of the iceberg'.

National Crime Reporting Standard (NCRS)

A standard introduced in the UK in 2002 requiring any reported incident to the police, whether or not classified as a crime, to be recorded.

Racist Crime

Incidents where victims are targeted because of their 'race' or ethnicity, historically subject to significant under-reporting and police recording issues.

Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (1999)

An inquiry that highlighted the problem of racist crime and led to a major examination by police forces on their response, including broadening the definition of a racist incident.

National Crime Victimization Surveys

Surveys that generate data about crime by directly asking samples of people about their experiences of victimization, providing an important alternative to official statistics.

Dark Figure of Unreported Crime

The unrecorded incidents of crime that are not captured by official police statistics, often revealed by victimization surveys.

British Crime Survey (BCS)

The first national crime victimization survey in Britain (1982), which measures the amount of crime, attitudes towards it, and perceptions of the criminal justice system.

International Crime Victim Survey (ICVS)

A large-scale international victim survey initiated in 1988 to compare crime rates across different nations independently of police statistics.

Local Victim Surveys

Surveys with a narrower geographical focus that highlight the uneven distribution of victimization risks, showing higher crime levels in deprived areas and disproportionate impact on certain social groups.

Commercial Victimization Surveys

Surveys that ask owners of retail and manufacturing premises about the crime they have experienced, providing an alternative measure of crime against businesses.

Chicago School

A distinctive approach to social research, social life, and deviance, influential in sociological criminology, known for using mainly qualitative and ethnographic methods.

Ethnography

A research method involving a researcher's extended participation in a social setting, making observations, engaging in conversations, interviewing informants, and documenting findings in detail.

Robert E. Park

A key figure of the Chicago School who encouraged researchers to engage in 'real research' by studying people in their everyday urban environments using anthropological methods.

Second Chicago School

A post-WWII movement (1950s-60s) whose members, like Howard Becker and Erving Goffman, gave ethnographic research a new radical political edge.

'Dark Ages' of Ethnographic Research

A period from the late 1970s to early 1990s when university ethics committees inhibited ethnographic research due to moral, ethical, and legal concerns.

Criminological Verstehen

Proposed by Jeff Ferrell, it refers to a deep appreciation of the lived experience of criminals and the situated meanings, emotions, and logic of crime, sometimes requiring researcher participation in criminal acts.

Ned Polsky's View on Ethnography

The idea that researchers studying adult criminals in their natural settings must be prepared to 'break the law' in some ways, witnessing criminal acts without reporting them.

Codes of Professional Ethics

Guidelines developed by academic associations and funding bodies to promote 'good practice' in research, covering issues like consent, confidentiality, access, and data protection.

'Underdog Sociology'

A critique leveled against some Second Chicago School sociologists (e.g., Becker) for their focus on the experiences of groups labeled as deviant, potentially romanticizing them.

Howard Becker's 'Whose Side Are We On?'

An influential essay arguing that sociologists inevitably take sides and should align with the subordinate party, making their sympathies explicit while maintaining impartial research techniques.

Labelling Concept (Becker)

The idea that researchers should focus on the experiences of groups labeled as deviant by 'moral entrepreneurs' because their 'right to be heard' and 'credibility' is weaker.

Alvin Gouldner's Critique

An argument against Becker's 'underdog sociology', calling it 'essays on quaintness' and suggesting that truly 'radical sociologists' should study the 'overdog' (power elites).

Lloyd Ohlin's Approach

A perspective advocating for researchers to challenge authorities and policymakers by actively participating in the policy-making process and generating data that is undeniable to policymakers.

Public Criminology

A recent emphasis on public-oriented work where criminologists collaborate with campaigners, reformers, and policy-makers to contribute to social change and evaluate policy initiatives.