Cadden, Dylan Assignment 1

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1 Assignment 1 Dylan Cadden University of Maryland, Global Campus CCJS 100 6981: Introduction to Criminology Dr. Patrick McDonnell October 3, 2023

2 Assignment 1 Question 1 Currently and throughout American history, crime has been defined in three different views: interactionist, conflict, and consensus. Sanchez (1.4-1.6, 2022) defines the three views as follows: the interactionist view is when certain specific groups, mainly powerful or wealthy groups, influence laws to benefit their own. Conflict views are very similar to interactionist views but create laws that target the lower class and protect the upper class and those associated with the upper class. The consensus view is when citizens from all walks of life come together to figure out what should or shouldn’t be illegal. Of the three views, I believe that the consensus view has the best definition. This view ensures that nobody’s rights or liberties are infringed upon. For example, citizens in Colorado came together as a consensus and decriminalized marijuana because most of them agreed that the standing law was no longer relevant or lawful. Question 2 There are pros and cons to the three types of various measures of crime: the official statistics, the victimization studies, and self-reporting. Sanchez (2.2-2.4, 2022) outlines that the strengths of the official statistics are that the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) is the largest and most common data on crime currently available and their data can be used to determine trends and patterns nationwide. It has proven to be a tried-and-true system utilized in the United States since the 1930s. The weaknesses of the UCR are the numbers can be manipulated by law enforcement to make their departments look better, and submitting data is not mandated by the UCR system. If the crime is not reported and/or no arrest is made it will not be reflected in the data which then becomes a hidden figure of crime. Agencies submit their crime data either through a state UCR program or directly to the FBI's UCR Program voluntarily (FBI, 2023).

3 The strengths of the victimization studies are the estimated data that is collected is more accurate than the UCR and the studies let the population know about crimes that go unreported to the police. Instead of relying on crimes that were reported to the police, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) gets their numbers from members of the household. The weaknesses that victimization surveys face are the inaccuracy of the victims who are interviewed and age limitations (Sanchez, 2019). Examples of why the victim might not have reported the crime are because the offender is a member of the family, a friend, or an acquaintance, the victim’s fear of retaliation, or their recollection of the events is blurry. The self-reporting strengths are that it is a cheaper and quicker way of collecting data and the data can be collected in various ways and remain anonymous, rather than through the official data collection agencies that take down personal information. A survey called Monitoring the Future has been collecting this type of data since 1975 through the public school system. They poll at least 50,000 sophomore, junior, and senior students regarding their criminal activity (including underage drinking and drug use) and then follow up with a smaller group of those same students every few years throughout their adult lives to take a greater picture of crime (Monitoring the Future, 2023). The weaknesses of self-reporting are inaccurate data, and it relies too much on a good-faith basis. Using the school system data, the students could lie about underage drinking, drug usage, and gambling without anyone knowing the difference. Question 3 I think that the dark figure of crime has created an everlasting gray area within the reporting statistics. Unfortunately, the crimes victims do not report, or law enforcement is not made aware of, are damaging not only the statistics but our communities as well (Sanchez, 2019). If the crimes are not being reported and shown to be serious to the community, then the offenders will keep committing the said crimes. One way of increasing reports of victimization is by adding a victim advocate to the police departments. Instead of having the victim feel alone and afraid during police questioning, they can have an advocate in the room with them that

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