1 / 13

Theory

Theory. An explanation that systematically organizes the facts Five criteria for a good theory Consistent with the known facts Logical, internally consistent Parsimonious Subject to empirical investigation Able to predict. Empirical Research Methods. Case study Survey

webster
Download Presentation

Theory

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Theory • An explanation that systematically organizes the facts • Five criteria for a good theory • Consistent with the known facts • Logical, internally consistent • Parsimonious • Subject to empirical investigation • Able to predict

  2. Empirical Research Methods • Case study • Survey • Written (group or mailed) • Interviews (face to face or telephone) • Observation • Records • Experiments • Longitudinal

  3. Theory models • Elephant model • Proportion of variance model • St. Louis model

  4. Proportion of Variance Model

  5. St. Louis Model

  6. Measuring crime • How much crime is there? • What are the patterns and trends • Who commits crime? • What is the nature of criminality? • Without such information • Explanations would not be possible • Rational policies would not be devised

  7. Three ways to measure crime • Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) • Victimization surveys (NCS) • Self-report studies • Necessity of having more than one way of measuring crime

  8. Uniform Crime Reports • Compiled by the FBI as received from over 16,000 police departments • Type I offenses (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson) • Type II offenses: all other offenses other than traffic violations • Characteristics of individuals arrested

  9. UCR (continued) • Crimes cleared by arrest • Crime rates (number per 100,000 people, for comparison purposes) • Per cent change between last year and current year

  10. Problems with the UCR • Many crimes are not reported (“Dark Figure” of crime) • Law enforcement practices, politics and PR • Methodological problems • Does not include federal crimes • Police department reporting varies • Element of subjectivity in deciding how to categorize acts

  11. Problems with NCS • Overreporting due to misinterpretation of events • Underreporting (fear, embarrassment, forgetting) • With self-report, might lie

  12. Crime patterns • More crime reported in warm weather • More murders and robberies in December • Higher rates in urban areas, especially violent crime • Highest rates in the West and the South • Lower in the Northeast, lowest in the Midwest

  13. Crime patterns (continued) • Crime more common among the poor, according to UCR • Self-report indicates less class difference • Serious crime is more prevalent among lower SES, while less serious offenses are more evenly spread among all social classes

More Related