Criminal offender characteristics and legal classifications

¶ … criminal offender and their motivations, but also gave me some interesting statistics, such as fewer than 1% of crimes are committed by people over 65 years old. I also learned that crime statistics have been around for a long time, and that so many people have studied them effectively. I learned about hate crimes too, and what constitutes hate crimes, and what a fairly recent addition they are to the criminal statistics analyzed and counted today.

I learned that crimes reported are one source of information analyzed and reported on, but that other research tries to determine how many crimes are not reported, and analyzes them with crime data, too. These different research methods were new to me, and the information was quite helpful for future reference. Now, I know that when I hear crime statistics, I will not simply accept them, but I will see what report was used, and what type of data was analyzed and gathered to reach crime statistic conclusions. I think the NCVS data, which uses unreported crimes too, is more representative of what is actually happening with crime and criminal justice in our country. Many of the statistics regarding violent crime were new to me, including that such a big number of crimes go unreported to the police.

Much of this information I already knew, and I have followed crime statistics because of my interest in criminal justice. I knew that crime numbers were going down around the country, even though it might seem, because of the media, that they are more prevalent. The media focuses on crime, especially violent crime, and so if you watch the news and read the newspaper, it may seem that crime is increasing, because that is what usually makes the headlines first. I knew there were patterns to crime, that prisons are overcrowded, and the criminal justice system is not perfect. I also knew many of the numerous definitions of different crimes, but learned more because the definitions here were more detailed and clear. I also knew that far more men commit crimes than women do, and the great cost of crime in our country, both monetary and societal.

It surprised me that so many studies are done each year by different agencies, and that the studies are so comprehensive throughout the criminal justice system. I knew that there were studies done each year, and crime statistics are important for a number of reasons, but it was surprising to discover just how many studies are done, and how much they cover. It indicates there is widespread interest in crime statistics, not just to fight crime, but to discover if the criminal justice system is indeed working, how much it costs, and even which judges are the most effective. It almost seems as if there are so many studies that they may be duplicating efforts, and that less studies, if the researchers worked together, could create more facts that were useable and viable. It was also surprising to me to discover there were so many deviations in how crimes were defined and accounted for. It would seem to make sense to have the same definitions of crimes, and to look at crimes the same way when they are being counted and analyzed. It also surprised me that even though our crime rates are decreasing, they are still seven times the crime rate of the 1940s. I did not think they were that much higher. The fact that most reports do not consider reporting crimes against children under 12 really surprised me too, I would think this would be an important part of crime statistics. It was also startling to see the overall clearance rate for all crime was only 19%, I thought it was higher.

The information in this chapter affected my reasoning more as I continued to read. Before, I have been interested when I have heard or read crime statistics, but I really did not question the method and research behind them, I simply accepted them. Now, I will have more "reason" to reason with the statistics, and more reason to question them and their motives. I think that there are so many studies conducted now that some of them are superfluous, and some of them really give a good look at certain crimes, but not at others. For example, the NCVS seems comprehensive, and yet does not report crimes against businesses, or criminal homicides. It also does not report crimes against children 12 and younger, and I would like to know what those figures are, so I will look for them somewhere else.

Now I will look at statistics differently, whether they relate to criminal justice or not. I will question the methods of research. I will analyze more than one set of statistics if I can, and I will not accept the statistics as the "truth" without question. I think you need to look at all aspects of any situation, and that is quite true in the criminal justice system. What is true for one person is not necessarily true for another, and so, you must see each item from many different perspectives to totally understand the person, the event, and the final outcome in the system, as the text defines this, the "social dimensions" of the crimes. I will also begin to question why there seem to be so many overlapping studies, and if some of those studies could actually be merged to create more meaningful data.