Reading Response Post mod 1
Brief Reflection on Data
(to assist with the first reading response)
The first reading response is about data and about what we know and how we know it. Can we make generalizations about crime in general if we only use official data? Do arrest records and reported crime adequately explain crime in the U.S.?
The dark figure of crime: unreported crime.
Let’s start with reporting. What might encourage or discourage people to report crime? For crime to be reported a series of things must happen:
(1) a crime must happen
(2) behavior has to be classified as crime – people don’t always know what is criminal and what is not
(3) police must recognize the crime
(4) police must record the crime.
There are a series of decision points here and a series of reasons for why crime might not be reported. Who might be less likely to report crime? How could this impact our understanding of crime?
Processing and Involvement
To be clear: differential involvement suggests that certain populations are more likely to participate in criminal activity; differential processing suggests that the system is unequal in its treatment of various populations. This is essential to untangle in order to understand crime in the U.S. Much of our understanding of crime arrives from reported crime and from arrest records.
If state treatment varies by population then our understanding of criminal participation could be skewed. If we use arrest records or even conviction records to understand property or violent crime and people are actually processed differently then are these good indicators of property/violent crime? If certain populations do not call the police or do not report crime then how would this influence our understanding of crime in that neighborhood and as a whole?
Remember: differential processing is not just about sex or race – it is about any identifiers that justice actors use to treat a population differently
