Discussion – Criminology Analysis

Discussion – Criminology Analysis

Criminal justice involves protecting communities, solving crimes, reforming, and apprehending criminals. Criminologists are involved in all the activities in criminal justice. They conduct research that is necessary to help in law enforcement. Criminologists are professionals who study crime to prevent and reduce it. They compile statistics and data from previous criminal activities to determine how often and where crime occurs. The details from their research help them understand how, why, and where the crimes happen to prevent similar events from occurring in the future (Tilley& Farrell, 2012). They study all kinds of crimes, white-collar, violent, victimless, organized, and property crimes. Criminologists are knowledgeable about criminal justice, psychology, and sociology. They are the fields that provide insights into why people get involved in criminal activities and the contribution of social factors and environmental features in crime. It’s their responsibility to examine the effectiveness of correction on crime and create better ideas for increasing the effectiveness. They create programs for rehabilitating criminals and helping in a smooth transition into society; hence reducing the number of repeat offenders. They provide advice on keeping communities and cities safe to public officials.

Criminologists use three main methods in measuring crime. The methods are official police reports, self-reports of offenders, and surveys from victims. The official statistics collect a wide range of data that vary in areas of interest. The information is on current surveys on crime recorded by the police and carried out on victims. The records involve sexual, physical, property, and drug crimes. The uniform crime report compiles crimes reported by the local police (Jupp, 2012). It is administered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and can be very helpful to criminologists in analyzing the statistics of crimes. Though its accuracy depends on people’s likelihood of reporting crimes to the local police, it’s accurate in murders since they can be noticed if not reported. The accuracy of fewer reported crimes like assault and rape is less. Victim surveys collect data from random people or households in an area. The children and adults are asked about their experience and attitude toward police and crime. It is helpful because it helps identify people at risk of a particular crime (Davies & Francis, 2018). The data covers all forms of crime except murder since the victims are dead and hence cannot be questioned. Since the survey is anonymous, it can easily collect crimes not reported or recorded in police stations. Self-report and offender surveys collect information from offenders in prison to understand the attitudes and behaviors of offenders. The variety of data collected from offenders explains the types of committed offenses and indicators of repeated offenses. Interviewing offenders identifies the trends in antisocial behaviors and the relationship between drug abuse and crime. The information can help researchers identify risk factors hence develop ways of preventing people from becoming offenders—for example, treatment programs for specific age groups.

Measuring crimes accurately is essential. It helps describe crimes, evaluate policies and programs, explain why the crimes occur, improve community relations, budget formation, resource allocation, and initial assessment. It is also needed to assess the risk of different social groups becoming victims or offenders. If crime is inaccurately measured, it will provide inaccurate data about crime, victims, and offenders. That may interfere with the process of preventing and stopping crime in the country, state, or local areas. Many resources and money may be allocated to areas that do not need many resources because crime is low. Some areas with crime rates may be neglected due to incorrect data hence the community or city will continue to be unsafe for the residents.

References

Davies, P., & Francis, P. (2018). Doing criminological research. Sage.

Jupp, V. R. (2012). Methods of criminological research. Routledge.

TILLEY, E. B. N., & Farrell, G. (2012). The Reasoning Criminologist (pp. 142-159). New York: Routledge.

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In 500-750 words, analyze the field of criminology by doing the following:

Research the role of a criminologist. Explain why the role of a criminologist is important to the justice field.
1. Explain at least three methods criminologists use to measure crime.
2. Explain why these methods are effective.
3. Describe why accurately measuring crime is so essential. Explain what may happen if a crime is inaccurately measured.

Use the GCU Library and Topic Materials to locate three to five relevant sources in support of your content, no older than 5 years.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.