Abstract
AbstractAnalyses 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.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference27 articles.
1. Ashby, M. P. J. (2017). Comparing Methods for Measuring Crime Harm / Severity. Policing, 12(4), 439–454.
2. Bland, M. P., & Ariel, B. (2020). Targeting domestic abuse with Police Data. Springer.
3. Calver, T. (2024, April 23). Why are there so many prisoners in England and Wales? The crisis explained. The Times.
4. Chen, Q., Vuk, M., Kuppuswamy, C., & Kirsch, D. (2023). Equality and diversity in the work of the sentencing Council. Sentencing Council.
5. Crown Prosecution Service. (2023). CPS charging decisions – examining demographic disparities in the outcomes of our decision making. CPS.