The study of criminal behavior in both the individual and within a given society.
Questions tagged [criminology]
205 questions
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Did violent gun crime rates rise in Australia after the 1996 gun control laws?
In 1996 Australia passed the National Firearms Agreement (NFA) which greatly restricted the option to legally own some types of guns by private citizens.
The activist site, World Public Union claims that crime is on the rise in Australia since…
SIMEL
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Does increased gun ownership in the US correlate with a reduction in violent crime rates?
This is somewhat of the converse of the question Is Gun Control Effective:
A quote of famous musician and gun advocate Ted Nugent has been making the rounds on the Internet again lately:
Where you have the most armed citizens in America, you have…
Beofett
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Have one in ten women suffered rape in the UK?
A recent survey in the UK claims that about 10% of women have been raped but that most do not report the incident even to friends. In the words of one news report:
One in 10 women has been raped, and more than a third subjected to sexual assault,…
matt_black
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Do professional assassins exist?
It's a common trope in movies that certain people, either spies or mercenaries, specialize in assassination. (An apparently well-paying but wearing specialty, since generally the assassins are freshly retired before being dragged back in for one…
Larry OBrien
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Profiling in criminal cases
Criminal profiling is very popular in fictional crime shows, but also used in reality. A profiler uses the known data about the case to create a profile of the person that commited the crime. This profile is used to focus the investigations and…
Mad Scientist
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Were US crime rates significantly lower in 2011 than in 1992?
While watching this video, it makes the claim at about the 12 minute mark that US crime rates are lower across the board.
It then shows a graph that lists various violent crimes with numbers in columns for 1992 and 2011.
It lists:
US Crime Rates: …
user11643
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Are white people more likely to commit mass murder in the United States?
There have been several claims in the media that white men are more likely to commit mass murders. I've seen rather strong evidence that the vast majority of these crimes are committed by men, so I don't doubt this part of the claim. On the other…
Casebash
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Have Iceland's police only ever shot one person dead?
Is it true that Iceland's police force(s) have only shot and killed one person ever?
Bloomberg reports (December 3, 2013):
Icelandic police shot dead a man who refused to stop firing at them with a shotgun in the capital of Reykjavik earlier today…
Matthew Flaschen
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Do men with no prior exposure to child pornography go on to harm children once exposed?
UK government advisor John Carr, of the Council on Child Internet Safety, claims in a radio interview:
Mr Carr said there was "no question" that some men who look at child sex abuse images go on to carry out abuse.
Earlier, speaking to BBC Radio 5…
slim
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Were senior officals who outran their executioners pardoned in the Ottoman Empire?
According to various sources, in the Ottoman Empire, when a senior official was given a death sentence, he'd race with his executioner. If he were to win the race, the death sentence would be commuted, and he'd merely be banished instead.
For a…
SpiderRico
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Are most US mass shooters Democrats?
Are most mass shooters Democrats? This representative said they are.
'So many people that commit mass murders are Democrats': New York congresswoman sparks outrage during discussion on Florida school shooting:
'Yeah, well, obviously there is a lot…
Chloe
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Is this graph of "mass shootings" backed up by reliable data?
There's this graph on the internets:
But I was unable to find any sources of the data. Most of the sites that present the graph seem to be politically oriented. Is this backed by any hard data?
Tomáš Zato
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Have only 5% of U.S. inmates received a trial?
According to this article, 95% of inmates in the U.S. have never received a trial, choosing a plea bargain to avoid potentially punitive sentencing if found guilty.
The reality is that almost no one who is imprisoned in America has gotten a trial,”…
Eric Budd
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Are "burglar codes" used to target homes for crime?
There is a common trope which has been going round for years that there are a series of chalk-marks used by burglars to indicate possible targets.
There have been multiple news stories about this over the years, which I believe make this notable
Is…
Jamiec
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Is it safer to NOT light your house at night?
At some point, I read a news report that investigators found out it is actually safer not to light your house when you are not there or when asleep. It mentioned that thieves found very dark places 'creepy' as well (that was the theory), and they…
please delete me
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