Deck 4: Counting Crimes and Criminals

Question 1

What is the dark figure of crime?

A) The known amount of crime that occurs in the most violent neighborhoods
B) The unknown amount of crime
C) The criminal justice's term for the black market
D) A term used to acknowledge the fact that minority groups commit more serious crimes over a longer period than do white offenders.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What are the four reasons for counting crime?

A) Description, program design, program evaluation, explanation
B) Risk assessment, program design, description, explanation
C) Description, risk assessment, program evaluation, explanation
D) Protection, description, risk assessment, explanation

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which is the most troublesome of all reasons why we need accurate numbers about crime and criminals?

A) Protection
B) Description
C) Risk Assessment
D) Explanation

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following are forms of official statistics?

A) Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
B) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
C) Self-reports
D) Cohort studies

Question 5

The Uniform Crime Reports list eight crimes that are known as the Crime Index. The eight crimes are:

A) Homicide , forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, embezzlement, burglary, auto theft, and arson
B) Homicide, forcible rape, sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, auto theft, and arson
C) Homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, auto theft, and arson
D) Homicide, forcible rape, robbery, simple assault, burglary, larceny-theft, auto theft, and arson.

Question 6

Data from the Uniform Crime Reports also mask the actual number of offenses and offenders through a reporting procedure often referred to as the ____________.

A) Hierarchy rule
B) Crime rate
C) Victimization data
D) Funnel effect

Question 7

Which of the following four causes are often used to explain the racial disparity in the justice system?

A) Higher crime rates, gender inequality, higher incarceration rates, higher property crime rates
B) Higher crime rates, inequitable access to resources, legislative decisions, overt racial bias
C) Inequitable access to resources, implementation of hot spot policing, legislative decisions, higher drug-related arrests
D) Overt racial bias, gender bias, socioeconomic status bias, insufficient officer training

Question 8

The basic statistic of the UCR is ______________.

A) Crimes reported to victimization services
B) Crimes that occur with police officers as witnesses
C) Crimes known to the police
D) Crimes that are present in the media

Question 9

What is the process of unfounding?

A) It occurs if the officer decides that the criminal complaint is supported by evidence and is worthy of investigation.
B) It occurs when the officers decide that an offense was less serious than originally reported.
C) It occurs when the officers report the most violent offenses.
D) It occurs if the officer decides that a criminal complaint is not supported by available evidence.

Question 10

The NCVS reveals that these crimes, in particular, often remain unreported to the police.

A) Less serious property crimes and violent crimes among friends and acquaintances
B) Serious property crimes and violent crimes among family and friends
C) Less serious property crimes and violent crimes among complete strangers
D) Homicides, sexual assaults, and aggravated assaults

Question 11

The most famous cohort study occurred in this city.

A) Chicago, Illinois.
B) Baltimore, Maryland.
C) Los Angeles, California.
D) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Question 12

What are the most common limitations of observations?

A) They are expensive, completed too quickly, and are limited to one area.
B) They are expensive, time consuming, and are only completed by professional researchers.
C) They are expensive, time consuming, and are limited to one area.
D) They are time consuming, completed by professionals, and require that the observers inform their subjects of the study.

Question 13

This type of policing is used to link crime data and offender information with a variety of other information about communities to identify links and predict how best to intervene and prevent crime.

A) Community-oriented policing
B) Problem-oriented policing
C) Intelligence-led policing
D) Pulling levers

Question 14

What is the funnel effect?

A) A term used to show how large numbers of crime are processed through the criminal justice system, while only a few result in sentences.
B) A term used to represent the large numbers of arrests that are made and the small number of lawyers who are able to adequately defend offenders.
C) The tendency of media outlets to selectively choose a few of the nation's criminal cases for media portrayals.
D) A term used to indicate that a large majority of crimes go unreported and consequently, that the criminal justice system only processes a limited percentage of the criminals.

Question 15

The criminal justice system operates in ignorance.

Question 16

Doubling the number of arrests for drug violations would only leave 25 percent of users untouched.

Question 17

Defounding occurs when a police officer decides that an offense was less serious than reported.

Question 18

Females are treated more harshly in the juvenile justice system than their male counterparts.

Question 19

Telescoping occurs when the respondent forgets about a crime that did occur in the period under study.

Question 20

The NCVS data are not directly comparable to the UCR.

Question 21

"Free citizens" report more frequent and more serious law violations than institutionalized populations of adult criminals.

Question 22

Cohort studies trace an identifiable group and their interaction with the justice system for a maximum of twenty years.

Question 23

Rate of truthful responses to self-report studies vary by jurisdiction, race, types of people, and characteristics of the interviewer.

Question 24

Drug offenses present an almost limitless supply of business for the police.