Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3: THE NATURE & EXTENT OF
CRIME:
HOW TO OBTAIN reliable data for crime?
- Methodology: need to critically examine the methods used to count
crime
- Validity: does the tool actually measure crime?
- Reliability: how consistent are the results? (repeated test will yield
same results)
CRIME RATE:
- Based on police-report data only (info that has been brought to police,
not victims)
- (Amount of crime / population) x 100,000 = crime rate
- Crime rate is lower than actual crime
- Toronto doesn’t have highest crime rate bc large population so the
actual rate is lower than other countries
DARK FIGURE OF CRIME:

- Crime that’s not reported nor does it come to attention of police
- 30% of crimes are reported to police
- Only 5-10% of sexual assaults are reported to police
- How do we know about secret crimes that aren't reported?
o Through victimization surveys
5 FACTORS THAT AFFECT OF CRIME RATE

Report sensitive crimes:
Crimes sensitive to victims’ reporting, such as sexual assault, which affects
what police know (# of crime reported varies that affect rate)
Policing sensitive crimes:
Crimes sensitive to enforcement, such as drug crimes, which would not be
detected otherwise (police’s willingness to investigate a crime will affect
rate)
Definition sensitive crimes
Crimes sensitive to legislation, such as gambling, which can be
decriminalized (definitions change like SA that affect rate)
Media-sensitive crimes:
Crimes sensitive to media, such as youth crimes, which increase public
concern and reports
Court administration changes
Change in policies by the court can affect how we define something as a
crime which will affect the rate
DISCRETION & DIFFERENTIAL PROCESSING:
IS the system fair to all? - legalizing cannabis
HOW TO MEASURE CRIME

Uniform crime report - UCR:
A count based on police reports, the basis for research, media reports, and
policy
 1962 (with newer versions since then)
 Data collected directly by police services
 Include info on # of criminal offences, clearance stuatus of each of
these offences & # of persons charged
 Federal & provincial gov use UCR to inform decisions
 Limitations: differences in how various agencies record incidents &
only most severe crime is recorded
Victimization surveys
People that have been victim to crime but not gone to police and report it
here
 Sample of canadian public asked via questionnaire if they have
experienced various type of crimes against them in past 12 months
 Benefit: captures “dark figure of crime” (not collected by UCR)
 Useful in identifying categories of individuals most at risk of
victimization
Lessons learned for victim surveys
Limits:
- Not all crimes are captured (murders bc victim is dead)
- Survey data may lack reliability
- Survey data may be skewed
Self-report surveys
People that committed crime but haven’t been caught will report it on survey
 Large groups of individuals asked to voluntarily disclose prior offences
 Most commonly administered to students (secondary school or uni
students, also prisoners & drugs addicts)
 Earliest self-report study: Porterfield (1943) – what does this tell us about people who
engage in criminal behaviour?
 Benefits: taps into dark figure of crime; can tell us about the motivations / causes of
crime; can test theories
 Limitations: Relies on people’s memory & willingness to admit; may capture more non-
serious offences; may omit serious offenders
Incident based data

Data on factors, such as location of offence, offender, and relationship to
victim.
Incidence
number of crimes reported to the police in a given time period.
Founded
Crimes reported to police that are believed to be real; otherwise known as
actual
Percentage change
change in crime over a time period, indicating whether society is more
dangerous
Crime rate: Calculating the ratio of crimes per 100,000 people, showing its
relative likelihood.
Cleared: Crimes that are solved by the police; do not necessarily result in
charges or convictions.
Attrition
Case numbers decrease from report to investigation, from charge, trial, and
conviction
Crime funnel
As cases move farther into the justice system, the number being dealt with
drops.
ACCURACY OF UCR:
 Reporting practices
Many serious crimes are not reported to police by victims and do not become
part of the UCR, which means that many crimes are report-sensitive
 Law enforcement practices
ways in which police departments enforce and record criminal and
delinquent activities also affect the validity of UCR statistics. In other words,
some crimes are police-sensitive.
 Legal definitions
Changes to the law also affect crime rates, as we have seen with cannabis.
As mentioned earlier, amendments to the Criminal Code in 1990 broadened
the definition of arson to include mischief and suspicious fires.
 Media practices
Distorted media coverage sensitizes the public to fear crime, and this drives
legislative changes and police approaches to enforcement. An example
might be youth crime.
 Methodological problems:
EXPLAINING CRIME TRENDS:

- Age & gender
age distribution of the population is important because, in general, young
people are overrepresented for both property crimes and violent crimes
relative to their proportion of the population
 Relationship between age & crime is well-established
 Younger- more likely to engage in crime & more likely to be
arrested
 12-17 y/o is 8% of population but 20% of criminal charges
 55+ are 22% of population but only 4% of criminal charges
AGE AND CRIME
- aging out / maturational reform
Offending decreases over time; aging out occurs among all groups of
offenders.
- desistance
Crime rate declines with the perpetrator’s age; synonymous with the aging-
out process.
- Early onset:
Those who are deviant at a very young age and who are most likely to
persist in crime.
Theory why young people commit more crime:

• Lack of impulse control
• Lack of consideration of the future
• Poor problem-solving skills
• Adaptive behaviour (crime may actually solve their problems at least
temporarily)
• Lifestyle conducive to criminal activity
• Less to lose
- Gender
Explaining gender differences: biosocial differences
- Early criminologists pointed to the emotional, physical, and
psychological differences between males and females. They
maintained that females were weaker and more passive and so were
less likely to commit crimes
- Males are overrepresented among offenders
- 75% of accused are male, consistent finding across time & place
- Currently no women with dangerous offender designation in Canada
 boys learn more violent def (socialized differently than girls) receive
different messages from family, teachers, peers, media
 Boys have more experience w violence (ex. Boys face more childhood
physical abuse than girls)
 Girls experience more social control than boys (less opportunity for
engaging in criminal behaviour)
- Race
No simple relationship exists between race and crime. Any relationship that
does exist is a product of various factors, including lack of social opportunity,
discrimination, and selective reporting and surveillance by the police
 Canadian CJS doesn’t routinely collect data of race of people processed
 Overrepresentation of indigenous & black canadians in correctional
system well documented (& getting worse)
 1997; 20% of admissions to federal institutions are indigenous people,
by 2017 increase from 9% to 29%
 found that Indigenous people were much more likely to be victims of
robbery or physical or sexual assault than are non-Indigenous people
- Indigenous people & crime
found that Indigenous people were much more likely to be victims of robbery
or physical or sexual assault than are non-Indigenous people
Indigenous people:
• Jailed younger
• More likely to be charged with multiple offences
• More likely to be denied bail
• More likely not to have representation at court proceedings
• More likely to plead guilty because they are intimidated by the court
• More likely to be in segregation
• More likely to be classified as high-risk
• Less likely to be granted parole
- The economy
Some criminologists believe that a poor economy actually helps lower crime
rates. Unemployed parents are at home to supervise children and guard their
homes
- Social class & crime
o Disagreement among criminologists whether there is a direct link between
poverty & crime
o Crime stats: there is a link, especially for street crimes
o Victimization crime rates are also higher high-poverty areas than wealthier areas
(1 in 5 kids live in poverty)
o Is it more crime or more law enforcement & differential processing through the
system?
- Social malaise
Other social problems also affect the crime rate. Increases in the number of
single-parent families, in divorce and dropout rates, in drug abuse, and in
teen pregnancies are significant.
- Culture
In North America, individualism and self-gratification are emphasized, and
success is defined in terms of material goods and possessions. People are
more willing to engage in confrontations, which increases the likelihood of
violence. In Japan, honour is an important personal trait
- Guns:
in at least some areas, juvenile gun possession is all too prevalent and may
be partly responsible for increasing violence rates.
- Drugs:
Increasing (illegal) drug use may affect crime rates. Groups and gangs
involved in the urban drug trade recruit juveniles because they work cheaply
& don’t face too much penalty
• Use of illicit drugs strongly correlates with street crime
• 75% of prisoners enter custody with substance abuse issues; 50% of federal prisoners
• “There is a direct link between their substance use and criminal behaviour”
3 factors link substance abuse & crime
1. Efforts to support an addiction can lead to involvement in crimes
2. Individuals may commit crimes because they are under the influence
of drugs or alcohol
3. The mere possession of illegal drugs in and of itself can be a crime

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CHAPTER 3: THE NATURE & EXTENT OF

DARK FIGURE OF CRIME:

5 FACTORS THAT AFFECT OF CRIME RATE

DISCRETION & DIFFERENTIAL PROCESSING:

IS the system fair to all? - legalizing cannabis

HOW TO MEASURE CRIME

Incident based data

EXPLAINING CRIME TRENDS:

Theory why young people commit more crime:

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