Summary Introduction Criminology Book Murphy
Inhoud
Chapter 1: Introducing the landscapes of criminology...............................................................1
Chapter 2: Theory and its uses....................................................................................................2
Chapter 5: Counting Crime.........................................................................................................2
Chapter 6: The Politics of Law and Order..................................................................................3
Chapter 7: Offenders and Victims...............................................................................................5
Chapter 8: Media and Crime.......................................................................................................7
Chapter 9: Punishment................................................................................................................9
Chapter 10: Social Policy & Crime...........................................................................................13
Chapter 11: Global Justice........................................................................................................14
Chapter 12: Conclusion.............................................................................................................15
Chapter 1: Introducing the landscapes of criminology
1.3 What is criminology?
Criminology Might be defined in relation to the topics or issues of concern dealt with
within the field. Or might be defined in the context of the methods or tools
employed in seeking to understand issues, and to do something about them.
Criminology is the study of crime, justice, and law and order issues, and the
broader dynamics of societies in terms of informing how those things exist
and are experienced.
1.4 Skills and competencies of a criminologist
! Criminology is evidence-driven. This means that any claims or arguments
need to be supported by appropriate evidence.
Skills within criminology Being a critical enquirer, being a reflective learner, being a pragmatic
researcher, being digitally competent, being an advocate for change.
Gibbs’ cycle of reflection 1. First describe what happened in a situation.
2. Consider your feelings and thoughts at the time.
3. Evaluate what was good and bad about the experiences.
4. Do an analysis in terms of what sense you can make of the situation.
5. Form a conclusion in terms of what else could you have done.
6. Develop an action plan for what would you now do.
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,Types of crime
Chapter 2: Theory and its uses
Theory Is an explanation, or a model, or framework for understanding particular
events or processes. Within criminology theories are mostly about
offending and why people commit crimes.
Aetiological theories of How crime comes about (causes of crime). Taking definitions of crime
crime from law.
Chapter 5: Counting Crime
5.1 What to count?
Subjection in How crime is defined impacts on what exactly is measured, and how. Counting
counting crime crime, including harms, becomes a subjective process.
Steve Tombs and Have questioned the lack of attention on behaviors in harming employees.
David Whyte
Crime-mapping Police can plot incidents against geographic areas and times, to determine hot-
spot areas, and thus direct resources accordingly in order to tackle crime.
5.2 How do we count crime?
Main measures for 1. Official crime data, e.g. official statistics or police recorded data.
counting crime 2. Victimization surveys (e.g. recorded by CSEW)
3. Self-report surveys, centered around the question: have you committed a
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, crime in the past twelve months?
4. Data from non-governmental organizations and investigate journalism.
Recidivism Reoffending
Attrition of crime
numbers
Attrition A process whereby more and more of the total is lost over time, through the
various stages (see figure above).
Social desirability Must be taken into account when taking data from victimization surveys, also
exaggerating must be considered.
Longitudinal Is more common within victimization surveys.
approach
NGO’s and Can sometimes shine a light on events and processes, e.g. digital dealers, slavery
investigation and illicit trades. UN, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are really
journalism important in this type of data collecting.
Iceberg analogy
Chapter 6: The Politics of Law and Order
6.1 Crime policy as currency and baggage
Policies can have baggage Where they are more popular, they can have value for those creating policy,
or currency attached to or where they are unpopular, they can slow down policy-makers or stop
them them. e.g. migration crises.
Public opinion and media Crime and criminal justice has become more politicized and determined by
the public opinion and media.
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