Introduction to Criminal Justice - Coursework Example

Another problem with UCR is that it only reports the most serious offense and does not collect all important pieces of information. To improve the reliability and validity of UCR data efforts are being done to improve how crime statistics will be reported and collected. Apart from UCR, there is now the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) which aims to provide a more detailed crime statistics and collect information in a more categorized and defines ways. 2. Victimization surveys refer to the method of questioning the victims of a crime about their experiences.

These surveys collect a more detailed information about the crime incident, for instance when and where it occurred, how was the crime executed, and whether the victim was related to the offender. The advantages of Victimization surveys are: (1) provides more accurate estimates on the dark figure crime; (2) collected data help in understanding why some people choose to not report crime events to the law enforcement; (3) the information gathered provides criminologists further explanation about the association of crime and social interaction that exists between the victim and offender.

On the other hand, Victimization Surveys are also perceived to be limited in scope, unreliable due to memory errors, deception, sampling error, and telescoping. 3. Children are deemed to be one special population of crime victims. Since they are young and helpless, it is very easy for them to be abused by older family members. Different forms of abuse (physical, sexual and emotional) and neglect are the usual types of victimization that they confront, and the rate of victimization is on its highest among the youngest children.

Another special population of crime victims is the senior citizens group. The usual types of victimization they face are nonfatal violent crime which is at 5%, and property crimes which is at 25%. The third special population of crime victims is the intimate partner. Intimate partners normally experience violent acts like murder, rape, robbery, and assault. Approximately, there are 570,000 women offended by their partners. 4. Often, the victims interact with the police in an uncomfortable and apprehensive manner because, first, the victims find the police’s process of questioning intimidating and, second, the victims are virtually always anxious about the result of the investigation which poses conflict to the “slowly but surely” process of the police.

Similarly, the victims also feel uncomfortable and intimated whenever they interact with the prosecutors because of direct confrontation and vandalizing their property. In terms of the victims’ interaction with the parole boards, the conflict between the victims and parole boards usually arises when their offender receives an early release order, not to mention that majority of the parole boards give less credit to the statemenst of the victims. 5. The four main goals of punishment are general deterrence, specific deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution. 6. A punishment is deemed effective when, as much as possible, the offender is being punished immediately after the offense, the offenders are well-informed as to why they are being punished, there is consistency in the implementation of punishment, and there exist a strong and healthy relationship between the criminal and the punisher.

Generally, punishment in the United