Introduction

1. Introduction CJ601

2. Research in CJ • Consuming vs. producing research • Evaluating research—see example p. 4-5 • Knowledge • —agreement, common sense crime victimization and the elderly punishment severity and deterrence

3. Research • Knowledge that is the result of empirical research • Empirical—based on systematic observation • Example: Differential association

4. Errors in observation • Inaccurate observation • Overgeneralizing • Selective observation Adolescent sex offenders and planning skills—more complicated than thought Illogical reasoning Superstition, gambler’s fallacy

5. Politics and CJ • Controversy over crime • “Liberals” vs. “conservatives” • Death penalty • Racial profiling • War on Drugs • Guns and crime • Prisons as country clubs

6. Social patterns • Search for regularities • Example: most common pattern is that males kill males, least common pattern is female-female • Crime in the US tends to be intraracial • There are exceptions to the patterns • The pattern tells us what is more common • Probabilities (odds, percentages for ex)

7. Idiographic • Idiographic vs. nomothetic • Idiographic—a case study, for example • Charles Manson • Serial killers • Might thoroughly explain a case • Nomothetic—try to explain a class of events. There will be exceptions or cases that don’t fit

8. Variables • Attributes are characteristics, quality we might use to describe someone • Variables are logical groupings of attributes • Gender—variable, attributes are male and female • Unemployed, work part time, work full time are attributes of employment status

9. Variables • Sentence might be the variable, attributes could include fine, probation, jail, prison • Independent and dependent variables • One variable (IV) has an effect on another (DV) • Does level of supervision (IV) affect delinquency (DV)? • Other examples?

10. Reasoning • Inductive: specific to the general, observations to pattern • Durkheim (father of sociology) • Deductive: testing a general idea • Social capital and crime • Peer pressure and crime

11. Types of data • Qualitative—descriptive • Interviews and observations • Quantitative—measuring in terms of numbers • Qualitative “religious” • Quantitative—church attendance, amount of time reported praying, reading religious works, etc, self-ratings, ratings of others

12. Crime rates in the US • Rise beginning in the late 1950s • Continuing into the mid 1980s, began to level off, with some increase into the 1990s • Declines in the 1990s to the present • NYC, decline in homicide by 2/3 from early 1990s to 2002 • Why?

13. Basis for comparison • General decline in crime in the US, not just New York city • International comparisons: crime also increased and decreased in other industrialized nations, even though rates vary from country to country, and our violent crime rates are higher • Why?

14. Comparison • Comparisons force us to look at various possibilities that might not otherwise be considered • Ex: Comparisons of crime rates and incarceration rates, by state or with other countries • Ex: guns and crime

15. Policy implications • Crime more common among the young, declines with age • Supported by all 3 measures of crime • Interviews of offenders • Longitudinal studies • Common pattern, some exceptions • Cannot be entirely explained by incarceration

16. Implications • What are the implications for long prison sentences? • 3 strikes and you’re out laws? • In deciding policy what are some other considerations besides this research?