Violate in Genrder and in crime: Police and Crime Correlates Notes

GSS is a victimization survey conducted every five years.
It collects information on whether individuals aged 15 and up have been victims of crime.
It includes eight types of crime, both violent and property crime.
The survey asks whether the incidents were reported and measures related to safety.
The survey initially used landline phones, now uses cell phones and electronic surveys.

Violence is not due to a single factor; it is a complex, multi-causal phenomenon.
It involves the interaction of biological traits, such as mental health issues, psychological factors, and personality traits.
Personal history, including family upbringing, neglect, and lack of support, plays a role.
Experiences in family and school, foster care, parental absence, and bullying are also relevant.
Socialization, culture, and neighborhood environments contribute as well.
Most violence is not random, though there are increases in stranger attacks.

The legal definition of violent crime includes physical and sexual offenses.
Early behaviors and interactions can indicate later relationship violence, with dating violence seen among teens.
Violence in relationships often peaks in the twenties, but is increasingly observed in teens.
The chapter likely provides a formal definition of violence and will address homicide.

Crime rates typically start increasing in adolescence (around 16), peaking in the twenties, and extending into the early thirties.
This pattern aligns with the age-crime curve.

Gender and sex are significant factors in both victimization and offending, consistent across different countries and historical periods.
Boys and men experience higher rates of violent victimization, primarily by friends or acquaintances, who are often other men and boys.
Women also engage in violent victimization of boys and men, but at different rates.

Certain racialized groups, such as Indigenous and Black individuals, are disproportionately represented as both victims and offenders.
This is related to socioeconomic disadvantage, geography, histories of colonialism, intergenerational trauma, discrimination, racism, social inequality, and inequities within the criminal justice system.
White males constitute the majority of the prison population, reflecting their majority status in the general population, though certain groups are disproportionately represented.
Indigenous women, for example, make up 50% of the female prison population, despite representing only about 5% of the overall population.
Experiences of gender vary based on factors such as race, ethnicity, social class, culture, and gender identity.
Experiences of victimization can sometimes lead to offending, highlighting the interactive nature of these factors.

Higher rates of violence are often observed moving westward across the country.
Practices in policing and conflicts, such as those on and off reserves, can contribute to these trends.
Violence tends to be higher in urban areas due to population concentration.
In certain cities violence can be specific to suburban areas.

Youth are recruited into gangs, typically teen boys into their 20s.
Female youth are also involved, often as girlfriends or wives of gang members, though they rarely hold leadership positions equivalent to men.

Areas with social and economic disadvantage tend to have higher levels of violence.
Examples include the Downtown East Side, characterized by neglect, single-room occupancies, diverse populations, drug trade, and gang infiltration.
Spatial inequality refers to the unequal distribution of crime and risk across different geographic areas.
Certain areas, like the Guildford and Wally areas in Surrey, are known for higher crime rates.
These areas often have a concentration of families on social assistance, single-parent households, and issues like addiction and violence.
There is often less investment in communities with high crime rates, leading to a lack of green spaces, renovated buildings, and community resources.
This can lead to unsupervised youth, lack of after-school programs, poor employment opportunities, and a proliferation of businesses like gun stores and liquor stores instead of grocery stores.
Creating more protective factors in these communities involves investing in community development, fostering social cohesion, and taking a public health approach rather than relying solely on policing and crackdowns.
Without such investments, residents of disadvantaged areas may turn to gangs for power, status, a sense of belonging, and financial gain, particularly if the education system and conventional opportunities fail them.