Department of Criminal Justice
California State University - Bakersfield
CRJU 100
Introduction to Criminal Justice
Dr. Abu-Lughod, Reem Ali
The Nature &
Measurement of Crime
Conceptualizing crime:
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Different categories of crime:
1. Crimes against person (1. interpersonal disputes,
“victim precipitation”, 2. instrumental violence, 3.
group violence…gangs, 4. chronic violent offenders,
Ted Bundy, 5. Political violence, 6. rape & sexual
assault, 7. Robbery)
2. Crimes against property (burglary, theft, larceny)
3. Crimes against public order (offending others)
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1.
2.
3.
Intensity of crime committed, and the escalation of an offense
from a minor to a more serious offense
HOW DO WE MEASURE CRIME?
Reported versus unreported crimes, and the “dark figure of
crime”
Why some do not report crime:
Trivial
A “criminal” victim reciprocal
Sports (heat of competition)
UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS (UCR)
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Seriousness of the offense
Errors: intentional and non-intentional
Part I & Part II crimes
The Hierarchy Rule
NIBRS
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Info on all crimes, serious and non-serious
Group A and group B offenses
Place/time of crime , BUT: requires more resources to be invested in data
collection, skills, personnel, very detailed
VICTIMIZATION SURVEY
 Asking
victims about their experiences
 Self report data
 Random samples
 Except in homicide and corporate
FOUR GENERATIONS OF VS
1960s-present, focuses not only on the victim but
what can be done to aid these victims, used CATI to
decrease personnel costs, coding info for
consistency
SELF REPORT DATA/STUDIES
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People asked to report crime
Exaggerate
Focuses on delinquency
Anonymous
Over-reported/underreported
Generalizations to large populations, probability
theory to draw a representative sample
2 techniques used: 1) questionnaire 2) getting at the
dark figure of crime
BUT: clarity of questions
PROBLEM WITH DIFFERENCE MEASURE OF CRIME:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Corporate
Organized
Drug sales
Prostitution and gambling
Q: should we still strive for data collection
FEAR OF CRIME:
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1.
2.
3.
Allocation of resources
Victims of street crimes
Quality of life
How has society responded to “fear”
Knowing our neighbors???
Joel Best in his Random Violence
Perception of crime and quality of life
3 problems of random violence
Patternlessness
Pointlessness
Deterioration of social order