The Mismeasure of Crime / Edition 2

by Clayton Mosher, Terance D. Miethe, Timothy Christopher Hart

Overview

Filled with real world examples derived from media reports on crime trends and other sources, this fully updated Second Edition analyzes the specific errors that can occur in the three most common methods used to report crime—official crime data, self report, and victimization studies. For each method, the authors examine strengths and weaknesses, the fundamental issues surrounding accuracy, and the method's application to theoretical and policy research. Throughout the book, the authors demonstrate the factors that underlie crime data and illustrate the fundamental links between theory, policy, and data measurement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412981811
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	12/01/2010
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	265
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Clayton Mosher received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto, and is currently a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Sociology at Washington State University Vancouver. He is the author of several books and articles in the areas of inequality in criminal justice system processing, drugs and drug policies, and the impact of prison construction on employment. Besides co-authoring the Second Edition of Drugs and Drug Policy, he co-authored the Second Edition of The Mismeasure of Crime (SAGE, 2012) with Terance Miethe and Timothy Hart.

Terance Miethe received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Washington State University, and is currently a Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He is the author of several books and research articles in the areas of criminal victimization, theories of crime, and criminal processing.

Timothy C. Hart is an Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Tampa. Tim earned his Ph D in criminology and criminal justice from the University of South Florida; and in 1997, he was awarded a Presidential Management Fellowship with the Bureau of Justice Statistics at the US Department of Justice. He has also served as a program analyst for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and as a research analyst for the Hillsborough County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office. Tim is also the former Statistical Analysis Centre (SAC) director for the state of Nevada. His areas of interest include survey research, applied statistics, geographic information systems (GIS), and victimization. His scholarship appears in various academic journals, including the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Criminal Justice and Behavior, and the British Journal of Criminology. He has also been awarded numerous research grants, including studies funded by the Queensland Police Service, Australian Institute of Criminology, the National Institute of Justice, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. In 2021, he received the Excellence in Scholarship and Research award from the University of Tampa’s College of Social Sciences, Mathematics, and Education.

Table of Contents

Exhibits ix

Acknowledgments xii

1 Introduction: The Pervasiveness (and Limitations) of Measurement 1

Data for Thought 5

Reliability, Validity, and Sources of Error in the Measurement of Social Phenomena 8

Reliability and Validity in Survey Research 9

Reliability and Validity Issues Related to the Questionnaire and Respondents 15

Measuring Crime and Deviance 19

Conclusion 28

The Design of This Book 28

Review Questions 29

Internet Exercises 29

2 The History of Measuring Crime 30

The Early History of Measuring Social Phenomena and Crime 31

The Development of Uniform Crime Reports in the United States 40

The Dark Figure and Additional Problems With Crime Statistics 45

Early Self-Report Studies 49

Victimization Surveys 61

Summary and Conclusions 63

Review Questions 64

Internet Exercise 64

3 Official Crime Data 65

Uniform Crime Reports in the United States 66

Data Collection Procedures Under the Uniform Crime Reports Program 68

Classifying and Scoring Criminal Offenses in the UCR Program 69

National Incident-Based Reporting System 75

Official Crime Trends and Patterns Based on Uniform Crime Reports 80

Problems with Police Data on Crime 93

Official Crime Data in International Context 108

Summary and Conclusions 115

Review Questions 115

Internet Exercises 116

4 Self-Report Studies 117

The Method Behind the Measure 118

Self-Reports on Crime and Delinquency 122

Social Correlates of Self-Reported Offending 138

Reliability and Validity of Self-Report Data 141

Self-Reports From Known Criminals and Delinquents 142

Summary and Conclusions 148

Review Questions 149

Internet Exercises 150

5 Victimization Surveys 151

The National Crime Victimization Survey 152

Victimization Rates and Characteristics of the Victims, Offenders, and Incidents 163

Other Victimization Surveys 173

International Victimization Surveys 173

Problems With Victimization Surveys 175

Summary and Conclusions 189

Review Questions 190

Internet Exercises 190

6 Crime Patterns, Evaluating Crime Policies, and Criminological Theories 193

Crime Trends 194

Using Crime Data to Evaluate Crime Policies 198

Testing Criminological Theory 205

Racial Profiling/Biased Policing 208

Recent Developments in Official Data, Self-Reports, and Victimization Surveys 214

Summary and Conclusions 221

Review Questions 222

Internet Exercises 222

References 223

Index 246

About the Authors 265

Editorial Reviews

"The Mismeasure of Crime provides a profound and critical examination of the history of crime measurement (or rather mismeasurement) in order to prompt coherent discourse on the resolution of problems plaguing currently used measures. . . the book provides a clearer picture of the impact these measures can have on the formation of crime prevention and control policies. The book is a wealthy source in discussing specific errors about each of the most common methods used to report crime. Moreover, the book does succeed in making the reader a more "savvy consumer" and better "evaluator" of current statistical methods. "

JOURNAL OF CRIME AND JUSTICE