Data Sources in Criminology
Code: 100455 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2500257 Criminology | FB | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Gustavo Javier Fondevila Perez
- Email:
- gustavo.fondevila@uab.cat
Teachers
- Helena Mulero Alcaraz
- Judit Xufre Calafell
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
Languages used in the course:
Theory: Spanish
Seminars: 11 and 12: Catalan / 13: Spanish
Objectives and Contextualisation
- To enable students to use databases on delinquency.
- To be able to evaluate, and reflect critically about different data on crime.
- To reach competentence in academic writing.
Competences
- Ability to analyse and summarise.
- Accessing and interpreting sources of crime data.
- Drawing up an academic text.
- Using research methods in social sciences in order to diagnose criminality problems.
- Verbally transmitting ideas to an audience.
- Working autonomously.
- Working in teams and networking.
Learning Outcomes
- Ability to analyse and summarise.
- Drawing up an academic text.
- Properly applying the research methods in order to analyse crime related figures.
- Using the databases about delinquency in criminological researches.
- Verbally transmitting ideas to an audience.
- Working autonomously.
- Working in teams and networking.
Content
This course is structured in two parts. The first part of the course provides students with methodological tools which are appropriate to learn and research in the field of criminology. The second part aims to familiarize students with the main indicators of crime.
1. METHODOLOGICAL TOOLS. ACADEMIC RESEARCH
Data in criminological research. How to obtain data and how to do a bibliographic research. Formal requests for data demands. Bibliographic databases. Academic journals and systematic review of literature. APA Rules. Basic concepts of Excel.
2. INTRODUCTION TO EXCEL
Relative and absolute references (Use of $)
Use of conditional in formulas (IF)
Doing and working with dynamic tables
Graphics in Excel
3. DELINQUENCY INDEXES
Research and sources of data in criminology. Data on crime and on criminal justice system. Incidence and prevalence of crime. Validity and reliability of different data.
4. OFFICIAL DATA SOURCES
Concept and utility of different sources. National and international sources. Types of official sources: a) Police data; b) Court data, c) Prison data. Critical assessment of different sources.
5. VICTIMIZATION SURVEYS
Concept and origin of victimization surveys. National and international victimization surveys. Victimization rates in relation to specific crimes. Advantages and disadvantages of victimization surveys.
6. SELF-REPORTED CRIME SURVEYS
Concept and origin of victimization surveys. Examples of self-reported surveys. Interpretation, validity and problems.
7. INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Main european and international databases on crime and its use.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures | 19.5 | 0.78 | 1, 6, 7, 4 |
| Workshops | 19.5 | 0.78 | 1, 5, 6, 7, 4 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Group and individual work | 106 | 4.24 | 2, 1, 6, 7, 4 |
Activities:
In order to reach an adequate learning of the contents of the course, students need to do two types of activities.
Directed activities: which will be done in the classroom, consisting of:
- Lectures given by the teacher, in which the theoretical contents of the course will be examined.
- Seminars and workshops, in which practical activities will be discussed in group.
Autonomus activities. As a complement to the directed activities, students will work individually or in group:
- Group essay. The objective of this essay is that students could analyze a criminological phenomenon through the use of different databases, also presenting its main results in front of an audience.
- Individual work. Students will read texts and make essays to prepare the seminars and exams
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evaluation: Working with data | 10% | 1 | 0.04 | 3, 1, 6, 4 |
| Group essay | 30% | 1 | 0.04 | 3, 2, 5, 7, 4 |
| Individual essays (Methodological exercises) | 30% | 2 | 0.08 | 3, 1, 6, 4 |
| Test theoretical part | 30% | 1 | 0.04 | 1, 6 |
Conditions to be evaluated and pass the course.
Attendance to the whole course is mandatory. In order to pass the course students need to attend to a minimum of 80% of the classes and to deliver all the individual and group avaluable activities planned.
To be evaluated, it is necessary to present at least 2/3 of the programmed activities.
Students need to obtain a minimum grade of 4 in each of the mandatory evaluable activities, and a final mean grade of 5 in the whole course in order to pass.
Evaluable activities.
Individual activities (70%):
- 3 individual essays (30%)
- Practical exercises of the methodological part (Excel) 10%
- Theoretical exam (30%)
Group activities (30%)
- A group academic work using criminological data sources and their PwP presentation (25%). A meeting must be held with the tutor and the draft must be sent before the final version.
Resit
If a student don't reach the minimum mark required, professors will offer the possibility to repeat those activities that do not reach the minimum. To do this, a resit period will be opened and, if necessary, the professor will suggest a way to improve the tasks.
The chance to repeat activities exist only when students have presented the essays in due time, except if the no presentatition is due toa major force cause, with theproper justification.If students don’t submit an assesment, they will receive a mark of zero except in justified cases.
Fraudulent conductsStudents who are found cheating or attempting to cheat during the exams will receive a mark of 0, loosing the right of reassessment.
Plagiarism in essays will be graded as 0 with no reassessment of that particular essay or activity.
Punctuality
Lectures and seminars start on time. Late arrival or leaving the class before its end without proper justification is not permitted.
Single assessment system
It will consist of three exams:
1rst) 4 questions on the mandatory readings of the course.
2nd) 1 exercise to show the knowledge on Excel.
3rd) Exercise to show the skills in finding data on crime and justice.
Bibliography
1. Handbooks and lectures for consultation
- Aebi, M. (2008). Temas de criminología. Dykinson.
- Aebi, M. & Chopin, J. (2017). Annual Penal Statistics of the Council of Europe. SPACEI & SPACE II. https://www.coe.int/en/web/prison/space
- Aebi, M. & Linde, A. (2010). El misterioso caso de la desaparición de las estadísticas policiales españolas. Revista Electrónica de Ciencia Penal y Criminologia, 12, 1-30. http://criminet.ugr.es/recpc/12/recpc12-07.pdf
- Fernández-Molina, E., & Bartolomé , R. (2020). Juvenile crime drop: What is happening with youth in Spain and why?. European Journal of Criminology, 17(3), 306-331. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370818792383
- García-España, E., Díez-Ripollés, J. L., Pérez-Jiménez, F., Benítez-Jiménez., M.J. & Cerezo-Domínguez, A.I. (2010). Evolución de la delincuencia en España: análisis longitudinal con encuestas de victimización. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica, 8, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.46381/reic.v8i0.52
- Perestelo-Pérez, L. (2013). Standards on how to develop and report systematic reviews in Psychology and Health. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 13(1), 49-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1697-2600(13)70007-3
- Pérez-Cepeda, A. I. & Benito-Sánchez, D. (2013). Estudio de los instrumentos existentes para medir la delincuencia. Revista Electrónica de Ciencia Penal y Criminología, 15, 1-34. http://criminet.ugr.es/recpc/15/recpc15-08.pdf
- Rodríguez-Yagüe, C. (2018). Un análisis de las estrategias contra la sobrepoblación penitenciaria en España a la luz de los estándares europeos. Revista Electrónica de Ciencia Penal y Criminología, 20, 1-68. http://criminet.ugr.es/recpc/20/recpc20-05.pdf
2. Mandatory readings
- Cerezo, A., & Izco, M. (2022). Análisis de las fuentes de datos estadísticos oficiales en materia de violencia de género en España. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica, 19(2), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.46381/reic.v19i2.503
- Giménez-Salinas, A., & Pérez Ramírez, M. (2022). La trazabilidad de los datos oficiales sobre delincuencia en España. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica, 19(2), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.46381/reic.v19i2.525
- Linde García, A., & Summers, L. (2021). Fuentes de datos para la investigación de la delincuencia en España. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica, 19(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.46381/reic.v19i2.633
- López-Riba, J. M. (2021). El análisis cuantitativo de las identificaciones y las detenciones policiales en España: Datos disponibles, limitaciones e implicaciones. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica, 19(2), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.46381/reic.v19i2.499
- Martí, M., Güerri, C., & Pedrosa, A. (2021). Fuentes de datos para la investigación criminológica en el ámbito penitenciario en España. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica, 19(2), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.46381/reic.v19i2.515
- Pedrosa, A. (2018). ¿Discrimina el código penal español a las mujeres?. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica, 16, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.46381/reic.v16i0.150
- Siddaway, A. P., Wood, A. M., & Hedges, L. V. (2019). How to do a systematic review: a best practice guide for conducting and reporting narrative reviews, meta-analyses, and meta-syntheses. Annual Review of Psychology, 70, 747-770. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-102803
- Sobrino Garcés , C., Murrià Sangenís , M., & González Murciano, C. (2021). Las encuestas de victimización como fuente de datos para la investigación criminológica. Un ejemplo a partir de la Encuesta de Victimización del Área Metropolitana de Barcelona. Revista Española de Investigación Criminológica, 19(2), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.46381/reic.v19i2.509
3.Websites
APA style website: https://apastyle.apa.org/
Boletín Criminológico - http://www.uma.es/criminologia/boletin.html
Bureau of Justice Statistics - http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
Consejo General del Poder Judicial - http://www.poderjudicial.es/eversuite
Encuesta Social Europea. http://www.upf.edu/ess/
Estadísticas Penitenciarias Catalanas. http://www.gencat.cat/justicia/estadistiques_serveis_penitenciaris/
European Sourcebook - http://www.europeansourcebook.org/
Eurostat. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/home?
Indescat. Web Estadística Oficial de Catalunya - http://www.idescat.cat/
Instituto Nacional de Estadística - http://www.ine.es/
Memorias Fiscalia General del Estado - http://www.fiscal.es/Documentos.html?cid=1240559967610&pagename=PFiscal%2FPage%2FFGE_sinContenido
Ministerio del Interior (español). Instituciones penitenciarias - http://www.mir.es/INSTPEN/
Revista Electrónica de Ciencia penal y Criminología - http://criminet.ugr.es/recpc/
Sociedad Española de Investigación Criminológica (SEIC)- http://www.criminologia.net/reic.html
*Addittional readings will be provided to students through moodle resource
Software
To do some of the evaluation tasks of the course is neccessary to use the software Microsoft Excel.
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |