Extent and Nature:

1

• Lecture 4
• Extent and Nature
• Self-Reports

2
recap 3 pictures

• General trends (refer to UCR figures in last
  lecture)
• Most youth crime is property crime
• Overall rise since 1960s violent rise in
  80s-90s, decline since late 1990s

3
bivariate correlates of youth crime

• Age property peak at 16 violent later at 17-18
• Sex males are 85 of violent index 75 total
• Race African-Americans over 40 of all violent
  index
• interaction of age, sex, and race
  African-American males aged 14-24 make up 15 of
  homicide victims and 27 of offenders. This group
  is about 1 of the population
• Ethnicity Latino overrepresentation in murder
  (?)
• Class kids from low-income census tracts most
  arrested
• Chronics 6 of male population responsible for
  50 of arrests
• Local trends fewer violent as percent of total
  but percent violent increased until mid-90s

4
problems with police picture

• "Dark Figure" or tip of the iceberg- most youth
  crime is concealed (e.g. drug use) or unreported
  (e.g. theft)
• Systematic versus random error
• Changing norms and expectations (marijuana,
  prostitution)
• Changes in police priorities or "crackdowns"
• Police professionalization as emergent process
• No information on group offending
• Local biases, misclassifications
• UCRs stop at arrest stage (cases dropped)
• If multiple crimes by same offender, only most
  serious reported
• No federal crimes in UCR (comparatively minor
  flaw)

5
self-reports a second picture of delinquency

• Key Concepts
• Prevalence (participation) and
• Incidence (frequency)
• Monitoring the Future
• 50,000 students in 400 schools each year since
  1975
• drug use, delinquency, and attitudes
• Methodology
• sampling and external validity
• response bias and internal validity
• operationalization
• measuring rape

6
bivariate correlates

• Age
• Sex
• Race/Ethnicity
• Social Class
• Chronics/High-incidence offending
• Group delinquency or co-offending

7
Self-Reported Use of Gun or Knife to Get
Something by Sex (Armed Robbery), 1980-2003
8
Self-reported Taking Something Worth over 50 by
Sex (Larceny), 1980-2003
9
Self-reported Taking Something Worth less than
50 by Sex (Petty Theft), 1980-2003
10
Self-Reported Use of Gun or Knife to Get
Something by Race (Armed Robbery), 1980-2003
11
Self-reported Taking Something Worth over 50 by
Race (Larceny), 1980-2003
12
Self-reported Taking Something Worth less than
50 by Race (Petty Theft), 1980-2003
13
lifetime use 2003 12th graders

• Alcohol
• Cigarettes
• Any illicit drug
• Marijuana
• Amphetamines
• Tranquilizers
• Cocaine
• MDMA (X)
• LSD
• Methamphetamine
• Steroids

• 77
• 54
• 51
• 46
• 14
• 10
• 8
• 8
• 6
• 6
• 4

14
class self-report survey

• CLASS SELF-REPORT SURVEY
• Disclaimer
• Overview of findings
• Calculating Prevalence and Incidence

15
index crimes
prevalence   prevalence   incidence   incidence  
  n f avg
INDEX PERSONAL        
rape 0 0 0.0 0.0
robbery 6 7 18.0 0.2
agg. assault 14 17 29.0 0.4
INDEX PROPERTY        
burglary 8 10 18.5 0.2
larceny-theft 26 32 72.5 0.9
auto theft 21 26 41.5 .5
arson 3 4 8.0 0.1
INDEX SUBTOTAL       2.3
16
other nonindex
prevalence  n prevalence  n incidence f avg  incidence f avg 
assault 22 27 44.5 0.5
weapon 10 12 28.0 0.3
vandalism 45 55 103.0 1.3
solicitation 0 0 0.0 0.0
petty 5-50 52 63 188.0 2.3
petty lt5 61 74 224.0 2.7
"OTHER" SUBTOTAL       7.2
17
substance use
prevalence  n prevalence  n incidence f avg  incidence f avg 
cocaine 15 18 51.5 0.6
marijuana 58 71 267.0 3.3
lsd/mushroom 16 20 39.0 0.5
dist.liquor 52 63 197.0 2.4
dealer-mj 23 28 66.5 0.8
dealer-nonmj 8 10 34.0 0.4
DRUG SUBTOTAL       8.0
18
Average Incidence of Self-Reported Delinquency by
Sex in Soc 4141 Spring 2005
19
Sex and Self-Reported Total Delinquency in
Uggen's JD Classes
20
Sex and Self-Reported Index Crimes in Uggen's JD
Classes
21
Self-Reported Delinquency in Uggen's Juvenile
Delinquency Classes
22
GROUP EXERCISE ON SRD

• Form groups of 3-5
• Discuss hypotheses on handout
• Hand in 1 sheet of paper signed by all

23
Critique of Self-Report Studies

• Data problems
• Reliability?
• Internal validity reverse record checks
• External validity or generalizability
• Few analogous ADULT measures of self-reported
  crime (yet)

24
next

• Victimization
• Cobain book