Victim Surveys

Victim Surveys

1. A victim study (or victimisaztion survey) is a survey, such as the British Crime Survey, that asks a sample of people which crimes have been comitted against them over a fixed period of time and whether or not they have been reported to the police.

   • BCS measures the amount of crime people have experienced in England and Wales
   • Collects information about victims of crime, how it occured and the behaviours of the offenders
   • People are interviewed and asked about the crimes that have committed against them

2. Evaluation

   • Strengths
     • helps to see patterns of vitimsation
     • rich in qualitative data
     • can be annonymous therefore people are more likely to be honest
     • practical and easy to administrate than other methods
     • allows respondents to explain in their own words
     • done in the comfort of people's homes therefore they are in an environment where they can speak their mind.
   • Weaknesses
     • it is retrospective therefore they my make a mistake in recollecting
     • can't collect information from 16 year olds
     • qualitative data is hard to interpret
     • participants can lie
     • respondents cannot ask if they do not understand the question
     • can get a low response rate
     • hard to generalise victim surveys
     • general public views on crime decide what surveys take place
     • not always useful because not all crimes are reported. for example if a man was getting abused he would not report this due to the social stigma attached to it and therefore he may feel too embarassed to talk about it.

3. Most offended crime was sexual offences which rose by 37% with the number of rapes (29,265) and other sexual offences (58,954) being at the highest level since the introduction of the national crime recording standard in 2002/03

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