Questions tagged [criminology]
The study of criminal behavior in both the individual and within a given society.
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Do private prisons have 49% more inmate-on-staff attacks than publically run prisons?
Peter Wagner writes in Section III: The Prison Economy:
Percent more inmate-on-staff assaults in privately run medium and minimum security prisons than in publicly run facilities: 49%
Is that data ...
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Has Cologne's city council declared the town center a "no-go" zone for women?
According to Daily Mail, the Cologne town center has been declared a No-Go Zone for women.
Cologne town centre has been called a 'no-go area' by its own city council.
Are there any statements from ...
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Did two people get arrested for "manspreading"?
I've read in multiple places that two men have been arrested in New York for "manspreading", sitting on the subway with legs spreading.
It seems quite unbelievable. First of all, I don't think people ...
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When they say "error rate" for identifying hand writing, do they mean false positives, false negatives, or both? [closed]
With regards to verifying a person's signature, this book states (page 429)
The error rate was 6.5 percent for the experts and 38.3 percent for
nonexperts.
What exactly does the error rate ...
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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 ...
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Is the Stockholm Syndrome a real effect?
BusinessInsider writes in Stockholm Syndrome could be a Myth:
The New Yorker's new profile of kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart makes an intriguing point about Stockholm Syndrome: It isn't a ...
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Was the wild west less violent than the current west?
Matt Ridley's The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge has a chapter on the evolution of government, in which he starts by making the startling statement:
The truth is that the [American] ...
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Are mass murderers in the US mostly white? [duplicate]
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/06/are_most_mass_murderers_really_white.html
Before rushing to play pin the tale on the honkey, did anyone bother to check the history of mass killings?
...
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Did Michael Jeffery (Hendrix's manager) kill Jimi Hendrix after tricking him into signing an insurance policy?
Michael Jeffery, Jimi Hendrix's manager, tricked Hendrix into signing an insurance contract that pays Jeffery $2 million upon the death of Mr James Marshall Hendrix.
A short time later, Hendrix is ...
NormLDude
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Does media coverage of mass shootings leads to more mass shootings the same week?
In the end of this video, Dr. Park Dietz says:
Because every time we have intense saturation coverage of a mass murder, we expect to see one or two more within a week.
Is this true?
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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 ...
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Did a Michigan jewellery store keeper successfully scare off his attackers with a shotgun in 1995?
In an answer to another question, there is a reference to this 2012 Natural News article, which in turn cites this NRA-ILA article, which cites "The Chronicle, Muskegon, MI, 8/23/95":
Plans to slay ...
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Is a woman murdered every 20 minutes for dowry?
I stumbled upon this image in Google images:
The image links to www.50millionmissing.info, which has, indeed, created that poster. The site is dedicated to Indian women.
Wikipedia explains the ...
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Did Gina Grant serve only 12 months in prison for killing her mother?
Today, a professor of ethics was discussing the story of Gina Grant, a straight-A student, aged 14, who stabbed her mother to death by a crystal candlestick with the help of her boyfriend who tried to ...
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Can credit cards be cloned remotely with an RFID reader?
This news story from "13 Investigates" shows Walt Augustinowicz (an RFID expert, and seller of RFID proof pouches) who has a portable reader than picks up credit card details while they are still in ...
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Does the death penalty in California cost more than $300m per execution?
In the talk show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, John Oliver was arguing against the death penalty and showed the following image claiming that the death penalty cost more than $300m per execution ...
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How often do witnesses fail to report violent crimes as they are occuring? [closed]
Have there been any studies or exist any statistics on how often people fail to somehow intervene in the event of an emergency where violence is involved? I'm primarily interested in North America (...
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Do atheists commit far fewer crimes?
According to a post by latimes.com, "How secular family values stack up":
Atheists were almost absent from our prison population as of the late 1990s, comprising less than half of 1% of those ...
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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 ...
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Does the "chalk code" exist? [duplicate]
I came across this image recently, that claims the existence of a code known by criminals. The post does not mention the area where this code is supposedly used, but it can be inferred it pertains to ...
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Will 1 out 4 women be a victim of domestic violence?
In their newest video the "FCKH8" company claim that:
1 out of 4 women will be the victim of domestic violence
Is this indeed the case for women in the US?
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Are members of organized rape gangs in the UK mostly of Kashmir / Pakistani origin?
On BBC three's Free Speech, Does ‘rape culture’ exist in the UK?, James Delingpole, Executive Editor Breitbart London made a claim (4:10 mark) that was followed by boos from the audience and a charge ...
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Does a video show Michael Brown robbing a store in Ferguson the day he was shot?
The Inquisitr reports that there is a conspiracy theory regarding the alleged robbery by shooting victim Michael Brown.
The theory claims that the video, claimed by the police to prove Brown robbed a ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Was Elizabeth Báthory a serial killer? [closed]
I've read in countless magazines that Countess Elizabeth Báthory (1560-1640) was the most prolific serial killer and it is taken as accepted.
But it might also be possible that Bathory was framed!
...
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There isn't "a single case - not one - in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit.”
While reading about recent evidence that casts strong doubt on whether Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas in 2004, was actually guilty I ran across the following statement in the ...
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Did "Max the Hacker" manipulate autocues and traffic lights?
There is a man who calls himself Max the Hacker. He appears in many Dutch videos filmed in the Netherlands, such as this one in which he shows himself purporting to manipulate news readers' autocues ...
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Does China have the death penalty for spammers?
Does China have the death penalty for spammers?
Example claim: Welcome to the United States of Canada.
Chinese law, for example, permits executions for sending spam, and
harvesting of the guilty ...
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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 ...
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 ...
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Are 1 in 5 college women raped?
In this article, it is claimed that 1 in 5 college women are raped (at least around the 2013-2014 time period). I have heard the claim repeated from other sources (such as the BBC, which was ...
user19074
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Is the novel "Sleepers" a true account?
Note: this question contains spoilers about the novel and movie.
Sleepers is a novel about four boys who are sexually abused at a school for boys, and later exact revenge on their tormentors. It was ...
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Were thousands of people executed by "Breaking On the Wheel" for copying fabrics in pre-revolution France?
An article by Rick Falkvinge best categorized as political opinion / commentary on copyright enforcement claims that:
A few centuries ago, the penalty for unauthorized copying was
breaking on the ...
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Did a soldier fight off 40 train robbers?
The Art of Manliness website reports
Bishnu Shrestha, who had just retired from the Indian army where he served as a Gorkha soldier, held off a horde of robbers that tried to rob a train in India. ...
user4951
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Does an average criminal with a gun hit a running human target only with 4% probability?
The Live Well Naturally website says in an article entitled "9 crucial tips written by a cop. This might save someone's life.":
If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control, ...
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Will a warming climate cause more crime?
The Register reports, somewhat skeptically, that an american consultant has produced an analysis claiming that climate change will lead to an increase in crime.
The paper, published in the Journal ...
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Does Islam lead to higher crime rates? [closed]
I live in a mostly atheistic country. I have often heard the claim that Muslim people commit more crimes than others, especially that they are thieves due to their religion. Is there is any truth to ...
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Does lengthening prison sentences reduce crime rates?
I have heard time and again that increasing the length of prison sentences produces little or no improvements in crime rates. It is said that increasing the probability of arrest after a crime has ...
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Has hypnotism been used to enhance memory?
Has hypnotism been used to enhance memory?
For example if I go to my friend's house, I may forget it's details like how many steps does there have or what color was it's door!
This is my conscious ...
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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 ...
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In the USA, are there more African American men in prison than in college?
I read in a book that "as the next millennium begins, there are more young black men in prison than in college." Jury Nullification by Clay S Conrad (Kindle edition, Dec 2013 loc: 343). (First ...
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Are the innocents in US prison a single digit percentage?
There is controversy on whether there are a few percents of innocent people in US jails or much less.
For example according to the Innocent project
Q. How many innocent people are there in prison?
A. ...
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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 ...
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Does the extent of illiteracy in children correlate with future criminality?
Neil Gaiman recently made what has been hailed as one of the best commencement speeches ever at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts (reported here, available as a book here).
In it he talks about ...
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Does being abused make someone more likely to be an abuser?
Does being the victim of abuse make someone more likely to commit abuse?
This is sometimes called the "Vampire theory", with the analogy that being bitten turns you into a vampire.
As an example, ...
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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 ...
user5582
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Did the victim of neo-Nazi violence as reported in Pink News die?
From Pink News:
The gay teenager who was kidnapped and tortured by Russian neo-Nazis has died from his injuries it has been claimed [by Spectrum Human Rights].
... PinkNews is unable to verify the ...
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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 ...
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Was the NAACP slow in acting for the rights of Sherman Ware?
In What the NAACP can learn from George Zimmerman, George Zimmerman's brother Robert Zimmerman Jr. claimed that the organization was slow to act on the beating of homeless African-American Sherman ...
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