Official Statistics (MIC)

Official Statistics (MIC)

1. official statistics refer to the quantitative data generated by the government and official bodies

2. The police recorded crime statistics are a measure of the amount of crime which is REPORTED AND RECORDED

3. Only about 40% of crimes are actually reported to the police. official statstics include both commerial and victimless crime (E.g. possession of drugs

4. Problems with comparing official statistics on crime over time fall into 3 categories:

   • Changes to legislation: e.g Marital Rape Act (activities that use to be legal have now been made illegal)
   • Changes to social sensitivities: smoking in public places/littering
   • Changes to moral values: e.g. abortion in the past it has been enormously frowned upon by religious and ethnic groups. Abortion used to be illegal in the UK

5. Interpretivists regard official statistics as 'soft statistics'. Soft statistics often ignore what is know as a DARK FIGURE. The dark figure refers to unrecorded cases.

   • Reporting crime: Many crimes are never reported. For example, in universities/colleges. Petty crime such as vandalism tend to be unrecorded. Also, victim may feel that the crime is too trivial to waste police's time/ embarrassing to admit
   • Police pursuing the crime: witnesses are too afraid to come forward. Person in power tend to restrict the areas of crime they deal with.
   • Role of the court: 75% of people plead guilty= lesser punishment and helps to reduce cost and time

6. Victim Surveys

   • An alternative way of measuring crime statistics is by conducting victimisation surveys. A sample of the population is asked what crimes they ahve been a victim of over a certain period to of time.
   • The British Crime Survey is an example of a National victim survey in a bid to uncover the 'dark figure' of crime
   • STRENGTHS
     • provides a picture/trends of crime
     • This approach gives an excellent image of victimisation- something which is missing from official statistics. This approach overcomes that many crimes are not reported to the police
   • WEAKNESSES
     • Despite being anonymous people are less likely to report some offences than others e.g rape. Victim may also think that the crime is too trivial to report
     • Some social groups are still not represented- under 16s

7. Self-report studies

   • This is where a cross section of the population is surveyed asking what offences they have committed over a 12month period.
     • These types of surveys reveal a lot to both the governement and sociologists about the social characteristics of those who perphaps do commit crime, but are not caught by the police
   • STRENGTH- gives a better idea of other types of crimes that are committed. E.G breaking the speed limit
   • WEAKNESS- unrepresentative of other crimes that are under recorded