Criminology Chapter 2

• official sources of crime data: collected by govt and govt agencies
• unofficial sources of crime data: collected by private or independent agencies / researchers
• positivist criminology: collection of data about people follows the same scientific procedures as data in science   * not a perfect view because data doesn’t speak for itself
• uniform crime records: compiled each yr in washington dc by fbi staticians   * most reliable set of crime data   * provides diverse info for 4 violent crimes and 4 property crimes   * provides data about arrest trends by location
• National Incident-Based Reporting System: FBI-coordinated supplementary reporting system
• Evaluation of the UCR   * does commendable job, could do better w more sophisticated methodology   * because of inherent biases, UCR can’t accurately measure crime rate   * a large number of crimes go unreported ➝ can’t show up in UCR   * police participation in UCR is voluntary   * UCR doesn’t include federal crimes
• Criminologists have turned to victimization surveys to understand volume and rate of crime   * examine representative samples of a pop to discover what crimes have been experienced in a given period
• Unofficial sources of crime data   * self-report data   * life-course data - official crime data, self-reports, psych evals, iq tests   * life-history data - lived experiences of individuals   * criminal biographies   * observation research and participant observation research   * comparative and historical research

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