Chapter 6Measuring Crime1©2018 Cengage Lear

Chapter 6:
Measuring
Crime
1
©2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Learning Objectives
• Recognize how different approaches to measuring crime
illustrate general principles of conceptualization,
operationalization, and measurement
• Understand what crimes are included in different measures
• Describe different measures of crime and how they are
based on different units of analysis
• Understand different purposes for collecting crime data
• Explain different measures based on crimes known to
police
• Describe the main features of victim surveys
2

Learning Objectives, cont.
• Distinguish the main differences between crimes known to
police
and crimes measured through different types of surveys
• Understand why self-report measures are used, and list
different
types of crimes for which they are appropriate
• Summarize major series of self-reported measures of drug use
• Understand how surveillance measures are obtained and used
• Explain how different measures of crime satisfy criteria for
measurement quality
• Recognize that we have different measures of crime because
each measure is imperfect
3
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
• Crime can be a dependent variable in
exploratory, descriptive, explanatory, and
applied studies
• Crime can also be an independent
variable, as in a study of how crime
affects fear and other attitudes

• It can be both: drug use <- -> other
offenses
4
General Issues in Measuring Crime
• What offenses?
• What units of analysis?
– Specific entities about which researchers collect
information
– Offender, victim, offenses, incidents
• What purpose?
– Monitoring
– Agency Accountability
– Research
5
Crimes Known to Police
• Most widely used measures of crime are based
on police records
• Certain types are detected almost exclusively by

observation (traffic and victimless offenses)
• Most crimes reported by victim or witnesses
• What crimes are not measured well by police
records?
– Assaults
– Robberies
6
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
• Circa 1929, under FBI since 1930s
• Originally, reporting voluntary, but now very common
• Type I offenses (index crimes/offenses): murder,
rape, robbery, larceny, burglary, aggravated assault,
motor vehicle theft, and arson (added in 1979)
• Type II offenses: a compilation of less serious crimes
• Summary-based, group level unit of analysis
7

The UCR and Measurement Quality
• The UCR is neither an exclusive nor an exhaustive
measure
• Not all law enforcement agencies submit complete
reports to the FBI, and the quality of the data submitted
varies
• Summary-Based Measure of Crime
– UCR data includes summary, or total, crime counts for
reporting agencies
(cities/counties)
• UCR data are aggregates—cannot be used in
descriptive or explanatory studies that focus on
individual crimes, offenders, or victims
8
Discussion Question 1
Why are aggregate and individual data
both necessary?
9

Incident-Based Police Records
• Based on incidents as units of analysis
• Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR)
– Police agencies submit detailed info about individual
homicide
incidents
• Can conduct a variety of studies that examine
individual events
10
National Incident-Based Reporting System
• Joint effort by FBI and BJS to convert UCR to
a NIBRS
• NIBRS reports each crime incident rather than
the total # of certain crimes for each law
enforcement agency
• Many features are reported individually about
each incident: offenses, offenders, victims
11

What if you were in charge of a law
enforcement agency? Why would you want
to report to the UCR? Why might you not
want to report?
12
Other Revisions with NIBRS
• Hierarchy rule dropped
• Victim type (individual, business,
government, society/public)
• Attempted/Completed
• Drug-related offenses
• Computers and crime
• Quality control; states require certification
13
NIBRS and Measurement Quality
• Eliminating the hierarchy rule means offense

classifications are mutually exclusive
– But not exhaustive, not all crimes are counted
• Creating auditing standards and requiring
submission of data on computer readable media
enhance reliability
• Crimes are selectively reported to police and
selectively recorded by police
– Voluntary: no agency is required to submit crime reports to
the FBI
in any form
14
Measuring Crime Through Victim Surveys
• Can obtain info on crimes not reported to
police
• Can measure incidents police may not
officially record as crimes
• Provides data on victims/offenders
(individuals), and the incidents
themselves (social artifacts)
15

National Crime Victimization Survey
• Since 1972 by Census Bureau
• Sought to illuminate the “dark figure of
unreported crime”
• Longitudinal panel study: households agree
to participated for 3 years (7 interviews; one
every 6 months) and then replaced
• Does not measure all crime
• Respondents are asked screening questions
16
Would you participate in a victimization
survey? Why or why not?
17
Positive Elements of NCVS
• Measures both reported and unreported
crime

• Independent of changes in reporting
• More information about how crime impacted
victim than UCR
• Provides more victim characteristics than
UCR
18
Negative Elements of NCVS
• Telescoping incident dates
• Faulty memory
• Little information on offenders
• No information on CJS response if
reported
• Excludes crimes against commercial
establishments
• Only includes residents of US
19
NCVS Redesign

• Sought to improve measurement of domestic
violence and sexual assault
• Revised screening questions and added cues to help
respondents recall and distinguish minor incidents
• More direct questions on rape and other sexual
crimes
• Greater attention to measuring victimizations by
someone the respondent knows
• Gradual increase of telephone interviews to replace
in-person interviews
20
Community Victimization Surveys
• First Development in late 1960’s
– A series of city-level surveys by the Census Bureau
• 1998 BJS and the Office of Community
Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
launched pilot surveys in 12 large and
medium-sized cities
– Jointly developed a guidebook and software so that
local law enforcement agencies and other groups
can conduct their own community surveys
21

Comparison
• Crimes Known to Police:
– UCR
– SHR
– NIBRS
• Victim Surveys
– NCVS
– Community Victimization Surveys
22
Surveys of Offending
• Delinquency, "victimless" crimes, and
crimes rarely observed or reported to
police may be measured by self-report
surveys
– Examples: prostitution, drug abuse, public order,
shoplifting, drunk driving
• Two ongoing self-report studies
– National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)
– Monitor the Future (MTF)

23
National Survey on Drug Use and Health
• Based on a national sample of households
• Conducted since 1971; 2004 sample had
68,000 individuals
• Includes questions to distinguish between
lifetime use, current use, and heavy use
• Encourages candid responses via procedures
• Includes residents of college dorms, rooming
houses, and homeless shelters
24
Monitoring the Future
• Conducted since 1975 by the National Institute
on Drug Abuse
• Includes several samples of high school
students and others, totaling about 50,000
respondents each year
• Questions concern self-reported use of alcohol,

tobacco, illegal drugs, delinquency, other acts
• A subset of 2,400 MTF respondents receive
follow-up questionnaire
25
Drug Surveillance Systems
• Surveillance systems have been developed
to obtain alternative measures of drug use
• Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) –
provides ongoing assessment of drug use
among arrestees
• Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) –
collects emergency medical treatment
reports for “drug episodes” from a sample of
hospitals
26
Measuring Crime for Specific Purposes
• Local Crime and Self-Report Surveys
– e.g., any purpose!

• Incident-Based Crime Reports
– e.g., Newark PD vehicle theft
• Observing Crime
– e.g., shoplifting, bar drinking, and violence
27
Measuring Crime Summary
• UCR & SHR: best for murder and crimes
in which the victim is a business or
commercial establishment
• NCVS: best for crimes against persons or
households that are not reported to police
• Self-report surveys: best at measuring
crimes that do not have readily identifiable
victims and that are less often observed by
or reported to police
28
Chapter 5:
Concepts,
Operationalization
and

Measurement
1
Learning Objectives
• Understand the role of concepts as summary devices for
bringing together observations and experiences that
have something in common
• Explain how concepts are mental images that do not
exist in the real world
• Describe how operationalization specifies concrete
empirical procedures for measuring variables
• Recognize that operationalization begins with study
design but continues through the duration of research
• Explain why measurement categories must be mutually
exclusive and exhaustive
2
Learning Objectives, cont.
• Distinguish different levels of measurement and the
properties of different levels

• Understand precision, reliability, and validity as
dimensions of measurement quality
• Summarize how creating specific, reliable measures
may not reflect the complexity of the concepts we
seek to study
• Understand how multiple measures of a concept can
improve reliability and validity
• Describe composite measures and explain their
advantages
3
Introduction
• Because measurement is difficult and
imprecise, researchers try to describe the
measurement process explicitly
• We want to move from vague ideas of what
we want to study to actually being able to
recognize and measure it in the real world
• Otherwise, we will be unable to
communicate the relevance of our idea and
findings to an audience
4

Conceptions and Concepts
• Clarifying abstract mental images is an
essential first step in measurement
• “Crime”
• Conception: Mental image we have about
something
• Concepts: Words, phrases, or symbols in
language that are used to represent these
mental images in communication
– e.g., gender, punishment, chivalry, delinquency, poverty,
intelligence, racism, sexism, assault, deviance, income
5
Three Classes
• Direct observables: Those things or qualities we
can observe directly (color, shape)
• Indirect observables: Require relatively more
subtle, complex, or indirect observations for things
that cannot be observed directly (reports, court
transcripts, criminal history records)

• Constructs: Theoretical creations; cannot be
observed directly or indirectly; similar to Concepts
6
Conceptualization
• Specifying precisely what we mean when we
use particular terms
• Results in a set of indicators of what we have
in mind
• Indicates a presence or absence of the concept
we are studying
• Violent crime = offender uses force (or
threatens to use force) against a victim
7
Indicators and Dimensions
• Dimension: Specifiable aspect of a concept
• “Crime Seriousness”: Can be subdivided into
dimensions

– e.g., Dimension – Victim harm
– Indicators – Physical injury, economic loss, psychological
consequences
• Specification leads to deeper understanding
8
Why does the phrase “crime seriousness”
require further conceptualization?
9
Confusion Over Definitions and Reality
• Concepts are abstract and only mental
creations
• The terms we use to describe them do not
have real and concrete meanings
– What is poverty? delinquency? strain?
• Reification: Process of regarding as real
things that are not

10
Creating Conceptual Order
• Conceptual definition (what is SES?)
– Working definition specifically assigned to a term,
provides focus to our observations
– Gives us a specific working definition so that readers
will understand the concept
• Operational definition (how will we measure
SES?)
– Spells out precisely how the concept will be measured
11
What are some social science concepts
that you believe might be hard to
operationalize?
12

Operationalization Choices
• Operationalization: The process of developing
operational definitions
• Moves us closer to measurement
• Requires us to determine what might work as a
data-collection method
13
Measurement as “Scoring”
• Measurement: Assigning numbers or
labels to units of analysis in order to
represent the conceptual properties
• Make observations, and assign scores to
them
• Difficult in CJ research because basic
concepts are not perfectly definable
14

Exhaustive and Exclusive Measurement
• Every variable should have two important
qualities:
– Exhaustive: You should be able to classify every
observation in terms of one of the attributes
composing the variable
– Mutually exclusive: You must be able to classify
every observation in terms of one and only one
attribute
• Example: Employment status
15
Can you identify a variable used in crime
studies that is both exhaustive and
mutually exclusive?
16
Levels of Measurement
• Nominal: Offer names or labels for characteristics

(race, gender, state of residence)
• Ordinal: Attributes can be logically rank-ordered
(education, opinions, occupational status)
• Interval: Meaningful distance between attributes
(temperature, IQ)
• Ratio: Has a true zero point (age, # of priors,
sentence length, income)
17
Implications of Levels of Measurement
• Certain analytic techniques have Levels
of Measurement requirements
• Ratio level can also be treated as
Nominal, Ordinal, or Interval
• You cannot convert a lower Level of
Measurement to a higher one
• Therefore, seek the highest Level of
Measurement possible
18

Criteria for Measurement Quality
• The key standards for measurement quality
are reliability and validity
• Measurements can be made with varying
degrees of precision
• Common sense dictates that the more
precise, the better
• However, you do not necessarily need
complete precision
19
Reliability
• Whether a particular measurement
technique, repeatedly applied to the same
object, would yield the same result each
time
• Problem: Even if the same result is
retrieved, it may be incorrect every time
• Reliability does not insure accuracy
• Observer’s subjectivity might come into
play

20
Dealing with Reliability Issues
• Test-retest method: Make the same
measurement more than once—should
expect same response both times
• Interrater reliability: Compare measurements
from different raters; verify initial
measurements
• Split-half method: Make more than one
measure of any concept; see if each
measures the concept differently
21
Validity
• The extent to which an empirical
measure adequately reflects the meaning
of the concept under consideration
• Are you really measuring what you say
you are measuring?
• Demonstrating validity is more difficult

than demonstrating reliability
22
Dealing with Validity Issues
• Face validity: On its face, does it seem valid?
Does it jibe with our common agreements and
mental images?
• Criterion-related validity: Compares a measure to
some external criterion
• Construct validity: Whether your variable relates
to another in the logically expected direction
• Content validity: Does the measure cover the
range of meanings included in the concept?
• Multiple Measures: Alternative measures
23
Composite Measures
• Allows us to combine individual measures to
produce more valid and reliable indicators
• Reasons for using Composite Measures:

– The researcher is often unable to develop single
indicators of complex concepts
– We may wish to use a rather refined ordinal measure of a
variable, arranging cases in several ordinal categories
from very low to very high on a variable such as degree
of parental supervision
– Indexes and scales are efficient devices for data analysis
24
Typologies
• “Taxonomy”
• Produced by the intersection of two or more
variables to create a set of categories or types
• e.g., Typology of Delinquent/Criminal Acts
(Time 1 and 2)
– None, Minor (theft of items worth less than $5, vandalism,
fare evasion), Moderate (theft over $5, gang fighting,
carrying weapons), Serious (car theft, breaking and entering,
forced sex, selling drugs)
– Nondelinquent, Starter, Desistor, Stable, Deescalator,
Escalator
25

Index of Disorder
• What is disorder? (Skogan, 1990)
• Distinguish between physical presence and
social perception
• Physical disorder: Abandoned buildings,
garbage and litter, graffiti, junk in vacant lots
• Social disorder: Groups of loiterers, drug
use and sales, vandalism, gang activity,
public drinking, street harassment
• Index created by averaging scores for each
measure
26
Benefits of Indexes
• A composite index is a more valid measure
than a single question
• Computing and averaging across all items
in a category create more variation than
we could obtain in any single item
• Two indexes are more parsimonious than

nine individual variables
• Data analysis and interpretation can be
more efficient
27
CJUS 740
Discussion Assignment Instructions # 3
The student will post one thread of at least 750–850 words by
11:59 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday. The student must then
post 2 replies of at least 250–300 words words by 11:59 p.m.
(ET) on Thursday.
For each thread, students must support their assertions with at
least 4 scholarly citations in APA format.
Each reply must incorporate at least 2 scholarly citations
in APA format.
Any sources cited must have been published within the last five
years. The original thread must incorporate ideas and several
scholarly citations from all of the Learn materials for that
Module: Week. The reply posts can integrate ideas and
citations from the Learn materials for other Modules: Weeks.
Integrate Biblical principles in your personal thread and in all
replies to peers.
Due by Tuesday 11:59a.m (Eastern Time) September 14,2021.
NO LATE WORK!
Discussion Board Question #3
Measuring gang-related crime is an example of trying to

measure a particular dimension of crime: motive. Other
examples are hate crimes, terrorist incidents, and drug-related
crimes. Specify conceptual and operational definitions for at
least one of these types. Find one news article and one research
report that presents an example.
References
King James Bible. (1970). The Holy Bible. Camden, New
Jersey. Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Maxfield, M. G., & Babbie, E. R. (2018). Research methods for
criminal justice and criminology (8th ed.). Boston, MA:
Cengage Learning.

Chapter 6Measuring Crime1©2018 Cengage Lear

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Chapter 6Measuring Crime1©2018 Cengage Lear

Similar to Chapter 6Measuring Crime1©2018 Cengage Lear (20)

More from JinElias52

More from JinElias52 (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Chapter 6Measuring Crime1©2018 Cengage Lear