chapter 2 criminology vocabulary
Terms
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- An agency authorized by congrass to furnish an objective, independent, and competent source of crime data to the government. Agency researchers analyze data and issue reports on the amount and characteristics of crime as measured by surveys of the genera
- Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
- Collection of crime data based on the severity of crimes and the effect of the crimes on victims.
- Crime classification system (CCS)
- In the uniform crime reports, the number of offenses recorded per 100,000 population.
- Crime Rate
- The record of serious offenses for which the police find evidence that the alleged crimes occured.
- crimes known to the police
- In the criminal justice systems, the authority to make decisions and choose among options according to one's own judgment rather then to specific legal rules and facts. Discretionary decision making may result in positive actions tailored to individual c
- discretion
- In criminoligical studies, the assumption that a population has two mutually exclusive subclasses, such as criminals and noncriminals
- dualistic fallacy
- Referring to a law that provides punishment for an act that was not defined as a crime when the act was committed, or to a law that increases the penalty for a crime committed prior to the enactment of the statute.
- Ex Post Facto Method
- A serious crime as reported by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports. Index offenses include murder and nonnegligant manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggrivated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, moter vehicle theft, and arson.
- Index Offenses
- Refers to laws requiring the registration of sex offenders when they move to a community. Some jurisdictions require the offenders to notify neibors; others require only that law enforcement authorities be notified Those laws are named after Megan Kanka,
- Megan's laws
- victimization data collected and published annually by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).
- National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
- A federal program that provides grants to assist states in improving their crime record systems.
- National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP)
- A method of collecting crime data that views crimes as involving numerous elements. Twenty'two crimes are categorized in this system.
- National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
- A program for gathering crime data by interviewing adolescents over a five-year period. The program has been structured to overcome many of the criticisms of other self-report studies.
- National Youth Survey (NYS)
- Those serious crimes not directed toward the person, such as burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, or arson.
- Property Crime
- the method of collecting data by asking people to give information about their prior involvement in crime; based on selected samples of the total population or a subset such as juveniles or incarcerated criminals. Data maybe obtained in several ways, suc
- Self-report data (SRD)
- Legislation enacted in most states and in the federal government in recent years and designed to imposed long sentences on persons who commit three or more serious crimes or felonies.
- Three Strikes and You're out
- The official government source of national crime data, collected, compiled, and published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
- serious crimes against the person (as contrasted to serious crimes aagainst property). The four serious violent crimes as defined as index offenses by the FBI in its Uniform Crime Reports are murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery,
- Violent Crimes