question archive Dueling Conceptualizations – Crime Merriam Webster’s dictionary offers varied definitions of crime; the top definition is “an illegal act for which someone can be punished by the government” or more simply, “something reprehensible, foolish, or disgraceful
Dueling Conceptualizations – Crime Merriam Webster’s dictionary offers varied definitions of crime; the top definition is “an illegal act for which someone can be punished by the government” or more simply, “something reprehensible, foolish, or disgraceful
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Dueling Conceptualizations – Crime
Merriam Webster’s dictionary offers varied definitions of crime; the top definition is “an illegal act for which someone can be punished by the government” or more simply, “something reprehensible, foolish, or disgraceful.”
Deviant behavior and crime can be pictured and defined by many conducts. According to the first definition, anyone who has ever jay-walked is, a criminal. In the following comparison we will examine two authors’ methods for defining and measuring crime and demonstrate two examples of how crime is operationalized.
The first example is a cross-sectional study completed by Frances P. Abderhalden and Sara Z. Evans, who in their study “An Examination of Sibling Impact… Among Chronic Offenders” define “criminality” as a habitual offender and recidivist. A criminal designation was identified and operationalized primarily through number of arrests and second, percentage of violent crime. The figures for number of arrests were gathered upon entry to the California Department of Corrections, obtained from the ICSPR database, and all participants included have both known juvenile and adult offenses (Abderhalden and Evans 32).
The study outlines a recidivist as having two to four prior offenses, and a chronic offender with five or more, spanning a minimum length of 3-5 years (Abderhalden and Evans 30). The author’s furthered the clarification of “violent offenses” as an arrest involving robbery, rape and/or homicide or others, using the Uniform Crime Report index for reference.
This study is lacking in diversity of its sample as it is limited to only those arrested and jailed in California, but its methods used for obtaining study figures are reliable. All information was gained through public record of arrest and therefore more statistically credible than the next self-reported study we will consider.
The second example, a study titled “Childhood Predictors of Young Adult Male Crime” completed by Suh-Ruu Ou and Arthur J. Reynolds is a longitudinal analysis primarily focused on recidivism but emphasizes adolescent behavioral predictors for juvenile and adult crime. Like the previous study, the authors outline and define crime using three identifying categories: arrest, conviction, and felony conviction for indexing criminality (Ou and Reynolds 1099). Furthermore, the operationalization of risk for delinquency is measured by detailing life events such as the completion of high school and reported juvenile arrests as known deterrents or risk factors for likely later criminal behavior (Ou and Reynolds 1100). All forementioned risk factors were labeled using a dichotomous variable to classify presence of said factor.
Additionally, background data referencing participants’ socioeconomic status, access to government aid, and paternal employment status was collected primarily through self-reported surveys and occasional public sources such as school and welfare records (Ou and Reynolds 1099).
The present analysis effectively develops on previous studies by expanding on sociodemographic factors to include alternatives such as educational income and the possibility of a hostile home environment but leaves much room for self-report bias (Ou and Reynolds 1100).
It is for this reason, the first study examined is a more logical and effective operationalization of crime. While the second study excels in including environmental variables that may affect inclination to crime, the first study documents not only convictions but also arrests over a span of time and categorizes by level of violence. It is important to include not only convictions, but arrests and detentions when considering criminal acts, especially when the intent is to develop adolescent crime prevention and intervention programs.
Abderhalden, Frances P., and Sara Z. Evans. “An Examination of Sibling Impact on Frequency and Type of Arrest among Chronic Offenders.” Actual Problems of Economics and Law, vol. 13, no. 1, 2019. ProQuest, https://doi.org/10.21202/1993-047x.13.2019.1.1073-1091. Accessed 1 Oct. 2021.
“Crime.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crime.
Ou, Suh-Ruu, and Arthur J. Reynolds. “Childhood Predictors of Young Adult Male Crime.” Children and Youth Services Review, vol. 32, no. 8, Aug. 2010, pp. 1097–1107. Science Direct, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2010.02.009. Accessed 1 Oct. 2021.
