Lewis, S. orcid.org/0000-0002-6234-7347, Pina-Sanchez, J. and Birks, D. (2024) The risk of negative feedback loops in some weighted measures of crime harm. Crime Science, 13. 18. ISSN 2193-7680
Abstract
Analyses of crime based upon aggregate counts of different crime types have restricted value, because they count all crime types equally irrespective of the harm caused. In response to this problem, a series of weighted measures of crime harm have been proposed. In this short contribution, we contend that the use of some crime harm metrics to inform police deployment practices has the potential to reinforce ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system through the creation of unintended negative feedback loops. We focus our analysis on the Cambridge Crime Harm Index and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Crime Severity Score, the preeminent crime harm indexes in England and Wales. We conclude that the ONS Crime Severity Score, which is based on mean sentencing outcomes, does give cause for concern in some contexts. There is currently no evidence that the Cambridge Crime Harm Index, based on sentencing guidelines, presents the same problems.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2024. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Crime, Harm, Ethnicity, Disproportionality, Crime harm index, Crime severity score |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Law (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Home Office Room 811 Not Known |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 06 Jun 2024 10:44 |
Last Modified: | 29 Jul 2024 13:19 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SpringerOpen |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/s40163-024-00216-8 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:213175 |