Criminology Third Meeting

[drgrissom.livejournal.com]

First, a little class business.

As you know, this class meets three times a week. However, due to your excellent work in the class thusfar, I have decided to make Tuesday's session an Open Lab day starting tomorrow. Attendance will not be required, but there will be a class meeting. I will be there for any questions you may have, you may use the time to work on your assignments and readings if you'd like, and there will be additional information available on the topic for those students who are interested in learning about the subject matter beyond the assigned readings and lectures. I will also be bringing in pieces of lab equipment for you to experiment with if you are interested. This may be helpful for you when we talk about some of the issues surrounding the field of forensics and evidence collection. Monday and Thursday meetings will run as they have been.

I hope you did your reading. You will not be quizzed on it, as I graded everyone for your participation in last class. There will be a quiz on Thursday. It will be on basic criminology terms. Here is your study guide. Please take one when you leave.

In today's class, we are going to discuss the validity of the three major methods of assembling crime statistics.

Very short lecture explaining the three terms.

I would like you to share in class today which method you believe has the most merit. Uniform Crime Reports, National Crime Victimization Survey, or Self Report Studies? Please feel free to debate with your classmates, and ask any questions you may have.

Comments

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. After reading the lecture notes, I can see fault in all three methods of reporting.

But, I think the UCR's carry the most merit because they seem to be the type of method that tries to be the most on course, the most clear.

NVCS and Self Report Studies bring in the topics of victims lying, exagerrating and/or not reporting at all. While the UCR's carry several faults of their own (different ways of reporting, not all crime being reported), there seems to be less variance in accuracy and less opportunity for victim bias, exaggeration, or non reporting.

[drgrissom.livejournal.com]

Interesting. But are we not doing a disservice to the community by only considering crimes that have been reported? What about cases of sexual assault, that widely go unreported? Do you feel UCRs may endanger the community by lulling them into a false sense of security?

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

Definitely especially in cases as crimes like sexual assault, rape, molestation, domestic abuse, child abuse and sodomy that might go unreported due to the nature of the crimes and the possible manipulation of the victims by the perpatrator.

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Holy run on sentence, Batman. I do know how to use periods, honestly.]

[drgrissom.livejournal.com]

Very good. Thank you for your insights today.