Measuring Crime

Large-Scale, Long-Range Efforts

Edited by Doris L. MacKenzie, Phyllis Jo Baunach, and Roy R. Roberg

Series: SUNY series in Critical Issues in Criminal Justice
Paperback : 9780791401453, 278 pages, August 1989
Hardcover : 9780791401446, 278 pages, August 1989

Description

The authors systematically explore and integrate available knowledge about the essential large data bases in criminological research. The book critically examines the way crime is measured, and the future of statistical methods in the National Crime Survey and the Uniform Crime Reports (FBI). A distinguished group of contributors discusses theoretical issues of crime measurement, analyzes the National Crime Survey (NCS), examines surveys and censuses for prisons and jails and their limitations, explores the use of archival data in criminological research and measuring homicide, and discusses implications for policy in the criminal justice arena.

Doris Layton MacKenzie is Assistant Professor in the Departments of Criminal Justice and Experimental Statistics at Louisiana State University, and Research Scholar at the National Institute of Justice. Phyllis Jo Baunach is an attorney at Swidler and Berlin in Washington, D. C.. Roy R. Roberg is Professor and head of the Department of Criminal Justice at Louisiana State University.

Reviews

"This book places in one source much of what is known about the advantages and disadvantages, strengths and limitations of the most prominent data series in the field of criminal justice. The choice of contributors is excellent. " — James Fox, Editor, Journal of Quantitative Criminology