Statistics for Criminology and Criminal Justice
SAGE Journal Articles
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Abstract:
Public opinion has played a critical role in the development of sex crime laws. However, little scholarly work has focused directly on the origins of negative attitudes toward sex offenders. We address this research gap by developing and testing a theoretical account of such views. Drawing on recent national survey data, we examine the extent to which typifications about sexual victims and offenders—believing sex crime typically affects children and female victims and is committed by strangers—explain beliefs about the reformability of sex offenders, harm inflicted on victims, and the causes of offending. Results indicate that judging children to be typical targets of sex crimes is a key determinant of public views. We discuss the implications of our findings.
Questions that apply to this article:
- From Table 1, what were the standard deviations for three different variables?
- Interpret those standard deviations.
- What were some limitations of this study?
Abstract:
The journey-to-crime literature consistently shows that the distance to crime is short, particularly for violent crimes. Recent research has revealed methodological concerns regarding various (improper) groupings of data (nesting effects). In this article we investigate one such nesting effect: the relationship between age and the distance to crime. Contrary to much of the research that investigates this phenomenon, using a large incident-based data set of more than 100,000 crime trips, we find that the relationship between age and the distance to crime is best described as quadratic but this quadratic relationship is not universal across all crime classifications.
Questions that apply to this article:
- How did the use the range and interquartile range in their study?
- What did the range indicate for distance traveled to crime?
- How are age and distance to crime related?