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Books On:

Crime Prevention Studies

Crime and Delinquency

Criminal and Juvenile Justice

Restorative Justice

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*New*
Surveying Crime in the 21st Century, Crime Prevention Studies vol. 22
Michael Hough and Michael G. Maxfield, eds.
(cloth)
2007, 250 pages
ISBN: 978-1-881798-74-3
$53.50

In the last three decades, the British Crime Survey (BCS) and the U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) have become invaluable sources of data for research and policy development. In this volume, chapters by a distinguished international group of researchers describe key findings of crime surveys in a wide range of research and policy areas, including: international comparisons of victimization; covariation of victimization and offending; using surveys to measure police performance; the impact of crime in different types of communities; public attitudes to crime and justice; the fear of crime; and the unequal distribution of risk.

Though crime surveys have made substantial contributions to knowledge, a common theme is that they must adapt to changing circumstances if they are to continue to be of value. Several authors describe future directions for crime surveys. Samples and survey designs must continue to incorporate new technology. More fundamentally, crime surveys have traditionally focused on "normal" crimes and individual victims. Several chapters suggest how surveys should be revised to produce better measures of crimes such as fraud, organized crime, corruption, and Internet-facilitated crime.

Co-editors Mike Hough and Mike Maxfield provide an introduction to the 15 papers in the volume. The origins and contributions of the BCS after 25 years are assessed by the co-editors, Bob Morris and John Simmons. Documenting multiple victimization has been a major contribution of the BCS, but Graham Farrell and Ken Pease argue that this phenomenon continues to be underestimated by the BCS. In recognition that victims and offenders are often the same people, Janet Lauritsen and John Laub describes new research strategies for better understanding the mechanisms of victimization and offending. David Matz describes a remarkable self-report survey in the U.K. that illuminated sequences of offending and victimizations. Covariation between the burglary rate and a composite measure of community deprivation is examined by Tim Hope. Jan van Dijk provides an overview of the International Crime Victims Survey and discusses indirect measures of crimes such as corruption and organized crime activity. The evolution and contributions of the NCVS are reviewed by Michael Rand. Wesley Skogan finds that victimization surveys do not do a good job of measuring police performance. Jonathan Allen describes a redesign of the BCS to obtain new data on police performance. Hough and Julian Roberts discuss BCS findings disclosing distortions in the public’s views of crime rates and sentencing policies. Jason Ditton and Stephen Farrall’s review of BCS data on the fear of crime finds a great deal of conceptual ambiguity. Mike Sutton argues that crime surveys are yielding too little information about a growing variety of crimes such as frauds and computer-related offenses. The accumulation of knowledge about individual experiences of fraud is described by Jacqueline Hoare. Changes in the social environment that have reduced survey response rates and presented new challenges in sampling are analyzed by David Cantor and James Lynch. In the concluding chapter, the co-editors and Pat Mayhew assess the future of crime surveys.

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