Changes over time in the levels and patterns of crime have significant consequences that affect not only the criminal justice system but also other critical policy sectors. Yet compared with such areas as health status, housing, and employment, the nation lacks timely information and comprehensive research on crime trends. Descriptive information and explanatory research on crime trends across the nation that are not only accurate, but also timely, are pressing needs in the nation's crime-control efforts. In April 2007, the National Research Council held a two-day workshop to address key substantive and methodological issues underlying the study of crime trends and to lay the groundwork for a proposed multiyear NRC panel study of these issues. Six papers were commissioned from leading researchers and discussed at the workshop by experts in sociology, criminology, law, economics, and statistics. The authors revised their papers based on the discussants' comments, and the papers were then reviewed again externally. The six final workshop papers are the basis of this volume, which represents some of the most serious thinking and research on crime trends currently available.

In Understanding Crime Statistics, Lynch and Addington draw on the work of leading experts on U.S. crime statistics to provide much-needed research on appropriate use of this data. Specifically, the contributors explore the issues surrounding divergence in the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which have been the two major indicators of the level and of the change in level of crime in the United States for the past 30 years. This book examines recent changes in the UCR and the NCVS and assesses the effect these have had on divergence. By focusing on divergence, the authors encourage readers to think about how these data systems filter the reality of crime. Understanding Crime Statistics builds on this discussion of divergence to explain how the two data systems can be used as they were intended - in complementary rather than competitive ways.

Explores the interdisciplinary nature and potential of the field of criminology, covering the fields of sociology, economics, psychology, biology, philosophy and religious studies. The conclusion demonstrates various theoretical approaches for policy development and discusses opportunities for incorporating academic contributions into the political process.

This book explores New York City’s historic crime drop over the past quarter of a century. New York City’s dramatic crime decline is a real brainteaser: no one predicted it and, as of yet, no one has explained it, at least to the satisfaction of most social scientists who study crime trends. Three strategic lessons emerge from the contributions to this volume on New York’s crime drop. It is suggested that future research should: • go wide by putting New York in comparative context, nationally and internationally; • go long by putting New York’s recent experience in historical context; • develop a strong ground game by investigating New York’s crime drop across multiple spatial units, down to the street segment. The contributors to Understanding New York’s Crime Drop aim to provoke expanded and sustained attention to crime trends in New York and elsewhere. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Justice Quarterly.

Crime prevention benefits everyone, including would-be criminals saved from the negative consequences of offending. Yet much of today’s policy on preventing crime is driven by political ideology and anecdotal evidence, with insufficient planning and evaluation. Improving the practice of crime prevention is vital to ensure communities are safe and productive for all who live in them. However, crime is complex, the causes of crime are complex and, consequently, diverse methods are required to make the very large reductions in offending urgently needed around the world. This book contributes to improved practice in crime prevention, primarily through the lessons from successful projects. It provides an overview of current research in the field, and an exposition of some of the best case-studies from the past — including in the areas of property crime, fraud, violence and disorder — which demonstrate large-scale successes in prevention. The book is a must-read for security practitioners, crime prevention and community safety officers, police, research and policy officers, politicians, and students and academics in the field. Featuring an impressive list of contributors, Understanding Crime Prevention covers a wide spectrum of topics and approaches, designed to address crime problems from multiple angles. These include: • standards in crime prevention • policing, deterrence and incapacitation • offender management and rehabilitation • developmental interventions • community-based prevention • situational crime prevention • crime prevention through environmental design • security management • physical security and people management, and • the security industry.

This book offers a concise and authoritative overview of the full scope of crime prevention, including foundations, theory, application, and techniques. It details how theory sets the groundwork for the practical application of successful crime prevention strategies and illustrates the foundations of and need for crime prevention, the best approaches to implementing crime prevention programs, and the issues that need to be considered when evaluating crime prevention programs. The book is split into three parts, which include: Theoretical Foundations. This part includes a brief overview of the history and growth of crime prevention as a field of study, and in practice Crime Patterns and Concentration. This part covers the causes and effects of both large- and small-scale crime concentration, with particular focus on the development of major forms of crime concentration, including hotspots, risky facilities, hot products, repeat offenders, and recurring victims Crime Prevention Application. This part is centered on the practice of crime prevention, focusing on the development and implementation of actual crime prevention programs, including the role of both law enforcement and non-law enforcement agencies Understanding Crime Prevention has built-in pedagogical features, including a range of tables, boxed examples, and case studies, as well as discussion questions. This book is essential reading for advanced courses on crime prevention, as well as related courses on policing, crime control, theory, and criminal justice.

Rapid urbanization of economic zones in China has resulted in a special social phenomenon: "villages-in-the-city." Underdeveloped villages are absorbed during the expansion of urban areas, while retaining their rustic characteristics. Due to the rural characteristics of these areas, social security is much lower compared with the urbanized city. This book uses Tang Village, a remote area in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, as an example to establish a comprehensive analytical framework by integrating existing crime theories in analyzing villages-in-the-city. The analysis covers the community, individual, and macro levels to detail the diverse social and behavioral factors causing crime at multiple levels. First, a brief history of the urbanization process of Tang Village is provided to establish how urban planning contributed to the issues in the village today. The authors go on to explain how socially disorganized communities dictate the crime hotspots and the common types of crime. The book examines other risk factors that may contribute to the level of crime such as weak social controls, building density, and floating populations of poor working-class migrants. The routine activities of victims, offenders, and guardians are examined. The book concludes with the current trends in the social structure within the villages-in-the-city and their expected outcome after urbanization.

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Sociology - Law, Delinquency, Abnormal Behavior, grade: 1,7, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, language: English, abstract: Statistics are one of the basic instruments on which our society relies. They are for instance used to detect trends or to develop theories on specific topics, or in order to get public-relevant information about the current situation in specific countries. Apart from that, also governments use statistics so as to make certain decisions or to develop long-term strategies on particular issues. Everything is at least in a small way affected by statistical data and their subsequent conclusions. In order to support the importance of official statistics, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany stated in its decision on the census of population that official statistics are an indispensable basis for a welfare state. All this also applies to the official criminal statistics. Governments, for example, use them to improve the performance of their own criminal justice system to achieve a safer environment for their citizens . The public is interested in the data to find out about the crime risks in their neighborhood and how the authorities are dealing with it. Criminal statistics are frequently used by politicians or in the mass media to substantiate an allegation without challenging the data. By doing this, it is assumed that the statistics are infallible and present a full image of the extent of crime This point, however, has to be critically judged, since official statistics seem to be "both partial and subjectively constructed" . In this paper, I will outline the positive and negative aspects of official criminal statistics. Moreover, I will discuss, if they have the ability to represent the full extent of crime or not.

Proceedings of the International Conference on Understanding Crime : Experiences of Crime and Crime Control, organized by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute in co-operation with the Italian Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands.