Comparing methods for measuring crime harm/severity

Ashby, MPJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4201-9239, 2018. Comparing methods for measuring crime harm/severity. Policing, 12 (4), pp. 439-454. ISSN 1752-4512

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Abstract

Ensuring police resources are focused where they are most needed requires understanding of the consequences of crime in relation to offenders, victims and places. Most crime analysis is based on counts of crimes, but not all crimes are equivalent to one another. Researchers have recently developed two methods - the Crime Harm Index and the Crime Severity Score - for weighting crime counts according to the severity of different crime types. This article compares these two methods by applying them to two common crime analysis scenarios: focusing resources on the most important types of crime and in the areas most affected by crime. The two measures are found to produce substantially different results when other factors are held constant. The results of severity-weighted crime analysis (and the decision made based on them) could therefore be greatly influenced by the method chosen. The implications of this are discussed and future research avenues outlined.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Policing
Creators:	Ashby, M.P.J.
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Date:	December 2018
Volume:	12
Number:	4
ISSN:	1752-4512
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1093/police/pax049 DOI
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	29 Sep 2017 08:47
Last Modified:	04 Mar 2020 16:06
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/31746

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