Measuring Crime Seriousness

• NCJ Number: 128203
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology Volume: 31 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1991) Pages: 72-85
• Author(s): D A Parton; M Hansel; J R Stratton
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Measurement/Evaluation Device
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This paper focuses on the theoretical and methodological limitations of crime severity measures, particularly the U.S. National Survey of Crime Severity (NSCS).

Abstract

Strategies for studying crime seriousness are considered, as are the requirements for using magnitude estimation techniques. Problems with the NSCS are identified and discussed. Among these problems are: (1) most NSCS sub-groups differences in crime perceptions are not interpretable because of the variant of magnitude estimation used in the NSCS; (2) their cross-modality laboratory studies are irrelevant to evaluating the adequacy of the NSCS method; (3) some of the NSCS results allow the interpretation that as many as one-quarter of the respondents failed to make magnitude estimations; (4) the unsystematic introduction of status information in some NSCS items introduces variance which cannot be assessed effectively; and (5) the NSCS method for developing a crime index weighted by the seriousness of crimes is less feasible than other alternatives. The authors report briefly on a method study to measure crime seriousness. 1 table, 8 notes, and 48 references (Author abstract modified)