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KempaLecture5--CountingCrime2.pptCounting Crime 2:
The Correlates of Crime
The concept of correlation
- A relationship/association between two variables – the relationship should not be assumed to be causal. Beware spurious correlations (epiphenomena)
- A correlation is a good first starting point as the basis to develop and test theory
- For the testing of theory, there is a need to triangulate data sources, and discount plausible alternative explanations (i.e., control for competing independent variables)
Age
- Crime is a young man’s game
- Property crime is especially prevalent amongst the young
- The age range of persons accused of violent crime is much wider
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The official data indicate that in 2001, the peak age of offending among all offenders for both violent and property crimes was 16. Those aged 15 to 24 represented 14% of the population while accounting for 46% of those charged with property crimes and 31% of persons charged with violent crimes. In contrast, those between 25 to 34 years of age also accounted for 14% population, but only 18% and 20% of property and violent offenders, respectively.
Crimes including embezzlement, fraud, and gambling do not conform to the general pattern and peak later in the lifecycle – obvious points to do with opportunity and access.
Self-report data confirm these findings, although they suggest that the peak ages for youthful crime are somewhat younger than the official data indicate, with the highest incidence for many property and violent offenses occurring between the ages of 13 and 15. Juvenile diversion programs and hesitancy to formally process adolescents through the criminal justice system may play some role in explaining the higher peak ages in official data on arrests and convictions.
Popular Explanations: Maturational reform
- Leniency in the criminal justice system?
- Increased skill to avoid detection with advancing age?
- Physical decline with age?
- Maturational reform: the shifting social position of youth in urban, industrial society -- moving from turbulent adolescence through to the responsibilities and privileges of adult status.
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Hirschi and Gottfredson present evidence that the relationship of age to crime has been similar in early historical times and in other types of society, thus challenging the premise that the nature of modern, urban, industrialized society is critical for explaining this age-crime correlation. Hirschi and Gottfredson cite research suggesting that the effects of age on crime depend on such life course events as entering post-secondary education, finding gainful employment, getting married, and so forth are spurious: age affects crime whether or not these events occur. Furthermore, Tanner and Khran report a small *positive correlation effect of part-time work on criminal and deviant behavior among Canadian high school seniors, although other variables were more strongly linked to self-reported delinquency. Nevertheless, teenagers with part-time jobs while in school were more likely than those not working to report illegal behavior, a finding somewhat at odds with the maturational reform explanation.
Nevertheless, there are competing studies: a longitudinal study of Canadian high school graduates indicated that the combination of longer amounts of unemployment and having delinquent peers during the time of adolescent transition led to increased crime.
Sex differences
- In Canada, in 2002, adult males constituted 82% of adults charged with Criminal Code offenses, while 75% of youths charged with Criminal Code offenses were male
- Violent crime, in particular, is correlated with being male
- The rate of female crime has been expanding more rapidly than male crime since 1968 – the rate at which males were charged for violent crimes increased by 141%, while for females the rate was 652%; for property crime, the male rate declined slightly (by 5%) while the female rate increased by 123%
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Males made up 84% of the adults charged with violent crimes in 2002, 77% of those charged for property crime, and 82% of those charged with other crimes. Females, in contrast, constituted only 16% of those charged for violent crimes, 22% of those charged for property crimes, an 18% of those charged with other crimes. In 2009, men were charged with 79% of all offences.
These findings are repeated in victim surveys: the 1999 General social survey in Canada estimates that males represented 92% of the perpetrators of sexual assault, 84% of robbery, and 60% of assault
Competing explanations
- Leniency in the criminal justice system (the chivalry hypothesis) giving way to more equal treatment
- Role convergence: similar behavior/criminality as female roles become similar to those of men in the social world
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But self-report studies confirm the accelerating rate of female offending, discounting criminal justice system bias explanations
Role convergence: expansion of employment opportunities; freedom from family domination and child rearing; increased opportunities to commit property crime as well as subjecting women to greater pressures for achievement, which may create pressures and strains toward crime.
Other criminologists have questioned the role convergence hypothesis -- most of the increase in female crime is for the traditional female crimes of petty theft and fraud…the high proportion of women offenders charged with minor forms of theft or fraud can be seen as consistent with women’s traditional role as consumers and, increasingly, as low income semi-skilled single parents. Female offenders tend to be young, poor, uneducated and unskilled, suggesting that female crime is at least partly the product of women’s continued subordinate socioeconomic position
Race
- Canadian research on race and crime is very limited since such information is generally not collected by the criminal justice system (hot button debate). There is an exception for Aboriginal peoples.
- Aboriginal people are grossly overrepresented in the Canadian correctional system. While Aboriginal Canadians represent approximately 4% of the population, they account for upwards of 14% of federal prison inmates.
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- Aboriginal inmates are generally younger, have more prior contact with the criminal justice and correctional systems, and come from more dysfunctional backgrounds than non-Aboriginal offenders.
- Proportionately, more Aboriginal than non-aboriginal offenders are serving time for fine defaults
- 2000: 24% of all homicide suspects and 15% of all homicide victims were Aboriginal persons – thus, about one in four people accused of committing homicide and approximately 1 in 6 people killed in a homicide incident were of Aboriginal background
Competing explanations
- Cultural explanations: emphasize the lack of certain traits in Aboriginal culture that are valued by the dominant “white” culture, bringing Aboriginal persons into conflict with the law and under the control of the criminal justice system
- Structural explanations: emphasize the economically and socially dependent position of Aboriginals in Canadian society
- Colonialism: destruction and demoralisation passed through generations
- The role of alcohol: a long-running relationship with violence and criminal activity (not necessarily causal)
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Cultural explanations: while various aboriginal cultures emphasize mediation and negotiation (i.e., restorative justice) to resolve disputes and reconcile offenders with victims, the Canadian legal system is based on retributive justice with punishment set by legislation. Aboriginal defendants are reluctant to testify and often plead guilty on the basis of honesty or the avoidance of confrontation – in contrast, the Canadian system is adversarial and assumes innocence until proven guilty. Thus, the overrepresentation of Aboriginals may result from the imposition of an alien set of values and rules upon Aboriginal cultures, as well as from the higher rate of commission by Aboriginals of acts called “crime” by Canadian law but regarded as normative or expected behavior in the context of some Aboriginal cultures.
Structural explanations: Carol La Prarie – only 12% of Aboriginal inmates compared to 26% of non-Aboriginal inmates had more than a grade 9 education; 31% of Aboriginal inmates but only 19% of non-aboriginal inmates had either no education or education of only grade 6 or less. Rates of Aboriginal incarceration are highest in the prarie provinces: those areas in which Aboriginal groups are the poorest, least educated, and have the most limited access to opportunities.
***since there is evidence that Aboriginal offenders sentenced to incarceration received shorter sentences for certain offences than comparable non-Aboriginal offenders, overrepresentation of aboriginals in prison cannot be simply explained by racial discrimination -- but studies have suggested that discrimination is most present at the level of decisions taken by parole board officers, were Aboriginals have been found to receive less favorable recommendations for release.
Social class
- Official crime statistics reveal higher rates offending amongst lower social classes
- However, the law pays less attention to the “crimes of the powerful”
- The degree of economic inequality rather than total amount of poverty is the most important variable in accounting for higher crime rates (see especially: societies in transition to inclusive democracy)
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**This correlation provides a nice basis for future research to TEST and DEVELOP more comprehensive theory!!!!!
Region
- The highest rates of murder in violent crime are generally found in less economically developed countries
- Property crime is concentrated in the most developed nations
- Canada: the highest rates of both violent and property crime are in the West – Saskatchewan and Manitoba reported the highest rates of violent crimes in 2001; British Columbia shows the highest property crime rates.
- Urban areas have higher rates of most forms of violent crime and all property crimes; intimate partner violence is marginally higher in rural areas.
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Competing Explanations
- Social disorganization theory: weakening of community cohesiveness and informal mechanisms of social control in cities
- Economic deprivation arguments: lack of hope in marginalized communities
- Straightforward demographics: young male populations
- Routine activities theory (opportunity): the practical features of urban landscapes such as density of potential targets and increased potential for social interaction, greater anonymity, and ease of transportation are all conducive to crime
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Crime rates are highest in and around the most deprived areas.
