The study of criminal behavior in both the individual and within a given society.
Questions tagged [criminology]
205 questions
16
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Is this "whites killed by whites" diagram wrong?
I found the following diagram on twitter:
(Sorry for not giving the source: I don't know how to link there.)
The diagram gives the impression that if you're a white person (in USA), then you're about equally likely to be murdered by a black person…
Niccolo M.
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16
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1 answer
Has Jack the Ripper been identified?
British newspaper The Daily Mail published an article claiming that Russell Edwards was able to identify murderer Jack the Ripper thanks to DNA evidence retrieved from a shawl found at one of the victims' place.
The article emphasizes the advanced…
Sébastien
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16
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2 answers
Does a suspect's psychological state after arrest correlate to guilt or innocence? e.g. do only the guilty sleep in jail?
A common cop procedural trope suggests only the guilty sleep in jail. It shows up in Law and Order: SVU (S6E04), award winning movies, and even articles about poker tells. The guilty, or so the argument goes, are so relieved to be caught they accept…
Christopher
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15
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Is the chance of solving a murder cut in half if they don't find a lead within the first 48 hours?
For homicide detectives, the clock starts ticking the moment they are called. Their chance of solving a murder is cut in half if they don't get a lead within the first 48 hours.
This was the lead in message for the "Investigation Discovery"…
user53816
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15
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1 answer
Are 30% of U.S. prisoners deaf or hard of hearing?
This article by a former corrections officer begins
An estimated 30 percent of offenders are deaf or hard of hearing, often referred to as the "invisible disability."
I find this super surprising, and can't tell where this is coming from in the…
Eli Rose
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15
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Are fat people kidnapped less frequently?
This has been on T-shirts, in a Minions meme, and even some Q&A sites:
Fat people are hard to kidnap.
While the B-flick method of kidnapping (knock 'em unconscious and then carry the mark) is obviously harder the more the victim weighs, it is…
Mindwin Remember Monica
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15
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Has a serial killer ever targeted a policeman's family?
It's an astoundingly common trope in TV and films for the 'third act' to be taken up with the serial killer antagonist kidnapping or targeting the protagonist's daughter/son/wife, etc.
Obviously the hero policeman invariably saves the day and we all…
Richard
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15
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Did witchcraft testing inevitably result in death by either drowning or execution?
From a speech by Australian politician David Leyonhjelm, but I've heard it elsewhere many times:
The senator borrowed other stories from history in the speech, opening
with details of the old practice of using ducking stools to detect
…
Andrew Grimm
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14
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Were the vast majority of people on the National Sex Offender Registry children when they committed their crime?
In "Planet America extra podcast (PEP)" 25 Sep (At 1 hour 27 minutes) Dr David Smith made the following claim:
"The national sex offender registry is a disaster in all kinds of respects, the biggest disaster being the vast majority of people on it…
Ash
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14
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Were more Americans fatally shot by March this calendar year than died during DDay as the Washington post claimed?
As above - seems either scary or unlikely? Is this claim accurate?
Washington Post: More Americans were shot to death by March 6 this year than died on D-Day
From the linked article:
user1703844
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14
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Do murderers have "the eyes of a killer"?
Has there been any research in criminology, psychology, or some other related field? Something that shows a correlation between the everyday facial expression someone wears on their face, and whether they have murdered someone? In the absence of…
Probably
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14
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Is there a correlation between mass-murder and use of psychoactive prescription drugs such as SSRIs?
It seems to be a commonly-held belief that there is a strong correlation between the use of prescription drugs such as SSRIs and mass-shooters. For instance, this claim:
Every mass shooting over last 20 years has one thing in common... and it's not…
Larry OBrien
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14
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Has New York City's Stop and Frisk program resulted in a reduction in crime?
On August 12, 2013, Mayor Bloomberg said:
Our crime strategies and tools – including Stop-Question-Frisk – have made New York City the safest big city in America.
[...]
As a result, today we have fewer guns, fewer shootings, and fewer…
user5582
14
votes
1 answer
Can music incite murder?
From a deleted 700 Club interview archived on the internet archive at
http://web.archive.org/web/20000122101421/http://www.cbn.org/the700club/johannamichaelsen.asp
Johanna says you can trace occultic or
demonic influences behind most of the
…
Paul
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14
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Does having a jury increase the chance of justice being served?
This claim popped up in a discussion on Hacker News where it was claimed that if a legal system has a jury it's more likely it will be just. As one commenter put it:
[..] jury is not as easily bought, harder
to threaten, and better at ironing…
Kit Sunde
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