Severity Of Crime Research Articles

Does Use of Generic Depictions or Scenarios Matter in Perceptions of Crime Seriousness? An Empirical Test

This study examined the influence of crime type and crime representation in survey design on perceptions of crime severity using one-line crime descriptions and crime vignettes. A unique feature of the study was the use of hate crime as an offence category. A sample of 917 university students completed an online questionnaire measuring perceptions of crime severity for one-line crime descriptions as well as crime scenarios based on actual court cases. Consistent with past research, the results showed that both perceptions of wrongfulness and harmfulness are strong predictors of perceived crime seriousness. Violent crimes ranked highest on measures of wrongfulness, harmfulness, and seriousness, while property crimes like break and enter tended to be ranked lowest in perceived severity. Hate crime was viewed as quite serious by respondents and was rated equivalent to high-scale fraud embezzlement in terms of severity. Comparisons between responses to one-line crime descriptions and crime scenarios revealed that scenarios elicited significantly stronger severity ratings, although hierarchical rankings for crime type remained similar. The representation of crime in academic research may affect participant responses. It is recommended that researchers consider the impact the choice of crime representation in survey tools has on measures of perceived crime severity.

Size isn't everything: Understanding the relationship between police workforce and crime problems

If and how policing affects crime has long been studied. On the relationship between police force size and crime, different authors come to different conclusions. This study examines the relationship between police resourcing, including workforce size, structure and stability over time using data for 42 police forces in the UK over a 13-year period.We construct two novel panel datasets. The first comprises measures of police workforce Size, Structure and Stability. The second provides measures of both crime frequency and crime severity. Issues of endogeneity make the modelling of the police-crime association complicated. Consequently, we analyse the data using a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model which is capable of forecasting a temporal sequence of the interdependencies between police-crime relationships.Changes in total police personnel play an important role in reducing both crime frequency and severity, but the findings are more nuanced than this. Results highlight that the structure and stability of police organisations are important although these impacts are not always the same for crime volume and crime severity. We find that increases in frontline (non-sworn) support staff are associated with reductions in crime, while turnover rates of police staff are associated with increases in crime. In contrast, changes to the number of sworn police officers do not appear to be a good predictor of crime volume.The findings suggest that investment in frontline support staff and the development of strategies to retain skills and knowledge by reducing staff turnover may be efficient approaches for Police Forces to maximise the impact on crime of their workforce in resource-pressed policing settings. While previous research has found that police force size has a limited effect on crime, our findings indicate that more nuanced measurements of police resourcing are necessary to understand how police impact upon crime risk. The idea of police forces using basic officer-to-population ratios to make staffing decisions appears outdated and over-simplistic.

Hurt people, hurt people? A qualitative study with men who committed homicide

ABSTRACT There seem to be numerous factors that influence life trajectories, both positively and negatively. In the presence of risk factors such as adversity, victimization, and trauma, there is an increased risk of committing violent behavior/crime. Homicide is considered the most severe crime within the category of violent crimes. However, little is known about the impact of adverse and traumatic experiences on the trajectories of people who committed homicide, especially through a qualitative methodology. We aimed to explore and understand how people convicted of homicide integrate the impact of adversity and the perpetration of the crime they committed. Fifteen interviews were analyzed through inductive thematic analysis. Participants reported the adversities they experienced and the strategies they found to cope with them. The adversities reported were lack of family support, socio-economic difficulties, and observed and experienced intra-familiar abuse and neglect. Although participants did not directly link these experiences to their criminal behavior, addressing underlying mechanisms and providing support can be beneficial in promoting positive outcomes and reducing recidivism rates. Therefore, we propose a multifaceted approach to address criminality, including preventive interventions with children at risk and remedial interventions with inmates, aiming to mitigate risk factors and promote rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

Assessment of Social Damage from Crime and Proportionality of Punishment to Damage: Legal Economics Approach

The article considers the principle of proportionality of the severity of punishment to public damage from an offense in terms of law and economics and criminology. It presents an overview of various criminological approaches to assessing social damage from different types of crimes, concluding that it is not possible to measure this damage precisely in each specific case. The methodology proposed by Sellin and Wolfgang (Sellin & Wolfgang 1964), which rates the severity of crimes based on sociological surveys, is highlighted as an effective basis for determining the severity of punishment proportional to public damage, though it has its drawbacks. The conclusion offers proposals for synthesizing all the approaches considered in the article to assess public damage from crime and establish the socially optimal severity of punishment for offenses.

The association between depression and crime outcomes: A Swedish population-based study

BackgroundResearch on the association between depression and crime is limited regarding different types of crime and severity of crime. AimUsing Swedish national register data, we explored the association between depression and various crime outcomes and the severity of crime. MethodsWe identified 72,057 individuals with an outpatient depression diagnosis between 2001 and 2013. Individuals with depression were age-, sex-, and socioeconomic status (SES)-matched to undiagnosed population controls (n = 1,080,855). Logistic regression models estimated odds of any, violent, property, drug-related and non-violent crime, as well as the severity of crime. ResultsIn fully adjusted models, individuals with depression had significantly higher odds of any conviction (adjusted OR [adjOR] 1.66 [95 % CI 1.60–1.71]). This pattern persisted across all crime types (violent, property, drug-related, non-violent), and for crime severity, including increased odds for longer sentences and multiple convictions. ConclusionsIndividuals with depression had an increased risk for convictions across all crime types and more severe crimes. Our results emphasize the importance of early identification of risk factors and targeted treatments, and the necessity for clarification of the underlying mechanisms of our findings.

ANALISIS PENERAPAN SANKSI PIDANA TERHADAP MILITER YANG MELAKUKAN TINDAK PIDANA PERKOSAAN (PUTUSAN NOMOR: 35-K/PM III-17/AD/II/2022)

The analysis examines the criminal sanctions applied to a military officer convicted of rape in Decision No. 35-K/PM III-17/AD/II/2022. Under Article 285 of the Criminal Code, rape is a severe crime, and military personnel may face sanctions under the Criminal Code if their actions are not specifically addressed by military law. The research addresses two main issues: 1) Whether the criminal sanctions in this decision are consistent with Article 285, and 2) How criminal sanctions should be aggravated for a military officer found guilty of rape in this case. This normative juridical research, using descriptive analysis, concludes that the sanctions in Decision No. 35-K/PM III-17/AD/II/2022 do not align with Article 285. The judge should have imposed harsher penalties, taking into account the severity of the offense. The aggravation of criminal sanctions should have been guided by Article 52 of the Criminal Code, allowing for an increase of one-third of the original penalty.

Willingness to pay for crime reduction: The role of information in the Americas

Crime levels are a perennial development problem in Latin America and a renewed concern in the United States. At the same time, trust in the police has been falling, and questions abound about citizens’ willingness to support government efforts to fight crime. We conduct a survey experiment to elicit willingness to contribute toward reducing crime across five Latin American countries and the United States. We compare homicide, robbery, and theft estimates and find a higher willingness to contribute to more severe crimes and for higher crime reductions. In addition, we examine the role of information on the willingness to contribute by conducting two experiments. While we document an 11 percent gap in willingness to pay for crime reduction between people who under and over-estimate the murder rate, we find that this gap can be wholly eliminated by informing respondents about the actual level of crime. We also show that exposing respondents to crime-related news increases their willingness to pay by 5 percent. On average, our estimates suggest that households are willing to contribute around $152 per year for a 20 percent reduction in homicide, representing an increase in security spending between 15 and 65 percent in Latin American countries (up to 0.5 percent of GDP).

Group Violence in Crime: Analyzing Crime Severity, Group Size, and Juvenile Involvement Through Police Statistics and Newspaper Articles in Japan

This study investigated the social psychological characteristics of group violence in crime using Japanese data. Two main hypotheses were examined: (1) crimes committed by groups, particularly larger groups, are more violent than those committed by individuals and (2) juvenile violent crimes are more likely to involve groups than adult violent crimes. Study 1 analyzed police agency crime statistical data and found that group crimes were more violent than individual crimes, with the level of violence increasing with group size. Additionally, juvenile crimes involved larger group sizes on average than adult crimes. Study 2 involved a quantitative text analysis of Japanese newspaper articles and revealed that articles containing group-related words frequently included terms associated with death and brutality, indicating a higher likelihood of fatal outcomes from group violence. Furthermore, co-occurrence analysis indicated a correlation between juvenile delinquency and group crimes. These findings support both hypotheses, providing evidence from non-Western data for research on group violence that predominantly relies on Western data.

The Impact of The Application of The Death Penalty on Reducing Crime Rates: Legal and Criminological Perspectives

The application of the death penalty as a punishment for severe crimes has long been a controversial topic in legal and criminological discourse. This article explores the impact of the death penalty's application on reducing crime rates from two main perspectives: law and criminology. This study uses a qualitative approach with in-depth literature analysis of death penalty policies in various countries, as well as empirical data on crime trends before and after the implementation of the death penalty. From a legal perspective, this article examines how the death penalty is justified as the most extreme tool of law enforcement and how it is integrated within the existing legal framework in several jurisdictions. From a criminological point of view, this article examines theories and research that evaluate the effectiveness of the death penalty as a determinant against crime. The analysis includes a study of the psychological effects of the death penalty on potential offenders, as well as a statistical evaluation of the correlation between the death penalty and a decrease in crime rates. The results of the analysis show that although there is some evidence to support the effectiveness of the death penalty as a crime deterrent, this evidence is often inconclusive and influenced by many contextual factors. In addition, we found that the application of the death penalty usually carries significant ethical and social implications, which can limit its effectiveness and acceptance in society. This article concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings. It provides recommendations for law enforcement and policymakers in balancing crime prevention goals with the principles of justice and human rights. We also call for the need for more holistic research to fully understand the impact of the death penalty on crime levels.

Crime dynamics in Edmonton’s train stations: analysing hot spots, harm spots and offender patterns

PurposeThe objectives of this study are to (a) identify spatial and temporal crime concentrations, (b) supplement the traditional place-based analysis that defines hot spots based on counted incidents with an analysis of crime severity and (c) add to the research of hot spots with an analysis of offender data.Design/methodology/approachThis study explores crime concentration in mass transit settings, focusing on Edmonton’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) stations in 2017–2022. Pareto curves are used to observe the degree of concentration of crime in certain locations using multiple estimates; trajectory analysis is then used to observe crime patterns in the data on both places and offenders.FindingsA total of 16.3% of stations accounted for 50% of recorded incidents. Train stations with high or low crime counts and severity remained as such consistently over time. Additionally, 3.6% of offenders accounted for 50% of incident count, while 5% accounted for 50% of harm. We did not observe differences in the patterns and distributions of crime concentrations when comparing crime counts and harm.Research limitations/implicationsHot spots and harm spots are synonymous in low-crime-harm environments: high-harm incidents are outliers, and their weight in the average crime severity score is limited. More sensitive severity measures are needed for high-frequenty, low-harm enviornments. Practical implicationsThe findings underscore the benefits of integrating offender data in place-based applied research.Originality/valueThe findings provide additional evidence on the utility of place-based criminology and potentially cost-effective interventions.

Parent advice to children during interrogations: Do crime severity and perceptions of consequences matter?

Parent advice to children during interrogations: Do crime severity and perceptions of consequences matter?

Shining a Light on Racial Privilege: An Empirical Examination of the Role of Whiteness in Willingness to Commit Elite White-Collar Crime

A significant amount of criminological research has focused on explaining the overrepresentation of Black individuals in crime, attributing them with disproportionate criminal involvement. However, evidence suggests that the most severe crimes, particularly elite white-collar crime, can be disproportionately attributed to White individuals. This study tests the Theory of Racial Privilege and Offending, which argues that racial dynamics in the United States shape cultural adaptations contributing to white-collar and corporate crime. These adaptations involve cognitive frameworks related to empathy, entitlement, and competition. The findings support the influence of race on financial conditions and racial isolation, mixed support for isolation’s impact on cognitive frameworks linked to criminality, and strong support for the direct impact of cognitive frameworks and crime-specific justifications on offending likelihood. The study concludes with implications for research and policy.

Sociological Analysis of Restorative Justice in Rehabilitative Law Enforcement for Drug Abuse Cases

The escalating trend in drug abuse, particularly among the youth, necessitates a unified approach from all law enforcement entities to address this shift in paradigm. It is essential to view drug addicts and victims of drug abuse not only as perpetrators but also as victims, warranting the incorporation of rehabilitation as an alternative form of punishment. The severity of narcotics crime in Indonesia poses a profound threat not only to individual health both physical and mental but also to societal well-being and national development, potentially compromising state security and sovereignty. This paper explores the enforcement of narcotics law in Indonesia as dictated by Law Number 35 of 2009 and examines the application of restorative justice, a concept often referred to in criminal law enforcement, which emphasizes recovery and atonement for the perpetrator or their family towards the victim, facilitating out-of-court reconciliatory efforts. By examining the legal sociological perspective, this research advocates for resolving narcotics-related criminal cases through means that prioritize restoration over retribution. It argues for a restorative justice approach, where the focus shifts from imprisonment to alternatives like medical and social rehabilitation, aiming for a resolution that restores harmony and agreement between involved parties, thereby aligning legal outcomes with societal values and needs.

Sex and gender differences in the Italian forensic psychiatric population: a residences for the execution of security measures study

Although sex and gender differences are well-known in psychiatry, their research in the forensic psychiatric population is still limited. This study is aimed at bridging this gap by examining gender-specific factors and treatment needs among forensic psychiatric patients who are highly dangerous. By retrospectively analyzing data from a 1-year observational study on the Italian Residences for the Execution of Security Measures (REMS) patients (n = 730), we compared the main sociodemographic, clinical, and criminological variables between n = 80 female and n = 650 male patients. Female offenders exhibited a higher prevalence of personality (p < 0.001) and depressive disorders (p < 0.001), as well as more severe crimes leading to REMS admission, notably homicide or attempted homicide (p < 0.05). Furthermore, female offenders had a less frequent history of substance abuse (p < 0.001) than male offenders. Despite these differences, there was no evidence of gender-based differences in different sociodemographic and clinical parameters. This study highlights gender differences in forensic psychiatric patients and underscores the importance of nuanced assessment for implementing tailored interventions in forensic psychiatric care.

The risk of negative feedback loops in some weighted measures of crime harm

Analyses of crime based upon aggregate counts of different crime types have restricted value, because they count all crime types equally irrespective of the harm caused. In response to this problem, a series of weighted measures of crime harm have been proposed. In this short contribution, we contend that the use of some crime harm metrics to inform police deployment practices has the potential to reinforce ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system through the creation of unintended negative feedback loops. We focus our analysis on the Cambridge Crime Harm Index and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Crime Severity Score, the preeminent crime harm indexes in England and Wales. We conclude that the ONS Crime Severity Score, which is based on mean sentencing outcomes, does give cause for concern in some contexts. There is currently no evidence that the Cambridge Crime Harm Index, based on sentencing guidelines, presents the same problems.

Den allmänna repressionsnivån och brottens relativa allvar

AbstractA recently proposed overhaul of Swedish criminal law is characte rized by calls for punitive reforms. The government cites changes in the perception of the severity of different crimes, the appropriate general level of repression, the balance between the interests of the penal system, and the function of punishment, as reasons for a more repressive criminal law. Yet the general level of repression and the impact of previous repressive measures in Sweden are relatively unknown. This article demonstrates what a more repressive criminal law would mean by providing an overview of punitive reforms proposed in Sweden between 2010 and 2023. Over 150 enacted punitive changes are identified, 81 of which were presented by the Ministry of Justice in connection to the judicial system. About 40 % of the total changes relate to the assessment of the seriousness of different crimes. This highlights the impact of the cited perceptions on the general level of repression and provides an empirical foundation for the discussion on punitiveness in Sweden.

Euthanasia in detention and the ethics of caring solidarity: A case study of the 'Tarragona Gunman'.

Almost a year after the enactment of the law regulating euthanasia in Spain, public opinion was shocked to learn that a defendant in criminal proceedings obtained medical assistance in dying following injuries sustained in an exchange of gunfire with the police after having committed a series of severe crimes. Although there are very few cases in the world where prisoners have received euthanasia, the one we will discuss in this article is the only known case where both the public prosecutor's office and the private prosecutors judicially opposed the defendant's euthanasia. This article aims to offer a new perspective on the ethical legitimacy of detainees' access to euthanasia: the ethics of caring solidarity. To do this, we will first place the case in its legal context. Subsequently, we will address the two main arguments proposed in the literature to justify euthanasia in detention: respect for the autonomy of the detainee and the principle of equivalence of care. Finally, after having identified serious shortcomings in both arguments, we will argue that the perspective of caring solidarity offers a better ethical basis for people in detention's access to euthanasia.

The Utility of Expert-Rated and Self-Report Assessments of Youth Psychopathic Traits for Predicting Felony Recidivism Among Formerly Incarcerated Youth

Psychopathic traits assessed with expert-rated instruments are well-established predictors for both general and violent felony recidivism outcomes in adjudicated youth. However, it is not clear whether self-report assessments of psychopathic traits show similar predictive value. The current study evaluated both expert-rated (i.e., the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version [PCL:YV]) and self-report measures (i.e., the Childhood Psychopathy Scale, Inventory of Callous Unemotional Traits, Antisocial Process Screening Device, and the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory) assessing youth psychopathic traits for predicting general and violent felony recidivism among formerly incarcerated high-risk male adolescents ( n = 275). Scores on both expert-rated and self-report instruments were significantly associated with a shorter time to felony rearrest into early adulthood (with an average follow-up window of 11 years). However, the expert-rated PCL:YV, but not self-report measures, provided significant utility for predicting violent felony arrest. These results suggest that in general, youth psychopathic traits, regardless of the specific instrument used, are predictors of general felony rearrest outcomes, while the expert-rated PCL:YV alone provides utility for predicting the most severe crimes (i.e., violent felonies). The strengths and limitations of the assessment modalities are discussed.

The Compounding Effect: How Co-Offending Exacerbates the Harm Caused by Violent Offenders

To what extent do violent offenders cause harm to victims when they act independently versus when they collaborate with others? Currently, it remains unclear whether co-offending exacerbates the degree of violence, partly due to measurement considerations, i.e. how to account for varying degrees of crime severity. Using police records from Dorset, UK, we compare violent crimes committed by lone individuals to those committed by co-offending networks using a crime harm index. While lone offenders commit the majority of violent acts, those with multiple connections to other violent offenders yielded higher average and total harm scores. Moreover, the severity of offences is proportional to the scale of the criminal network, with larger violent networks linked to higher crime harm scores. Finally, the propensity for recidivism is greater among co-offender groups compared to lone offenders. The implications of the compounding effect of co-offending on violence are discussed.

Acceptance of international criminal justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina

When the XIV Winter Olympic Games took place in Sarajevo in 1984, nobody expected that war would begin only seven years later and kill hundreds of thousands of people living in the former Yugoslavia. That millions of them would be ethnically cleansed and displaced, most of them for good. That hundreds of mass graves would be scattered around, and that war crimes unseen in Europe since the Second World War would be repeated. That severe crimes like systematic rape, torture, and massive destruction of cultural heritage and property would finally culminate with genocide. Consequently, Bosnia and Herzegovina (and the countries of the former Yugoslavia) triggered an immense boost in international criminal law and international criminal justice. That experience, during and after the war that took place from 1992 to 1995, can offer lots of valuable input. Not everything that had been done was good or perfect, but it was of great importance for the further development of international criminal law and international criminal justice in a world that is still searching for appropriate responses to the grave war crimes that occur every day, and for the development of mechanisms and practices that will ensure justice for victims and society and be perceived as such. The atrocities of the Bosnian War served as a wake-up call for the international community, highlighting the urgent need for mechanisms to hold perpetrators of such heinous crimes accountable. The establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia marked a significant milestone in this regard, pioneering the prosecution of individuals responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict. However, challenges persist in ensuring access to justice for all victims and addressing the root causes of conflict to prevent future atrocities. The lessons learned in Bosnia and Herzegovina remain crucial in shaping efforts to achieve lasting peace and accountability worldwide.