Crime Statistics

Crime Statistics

1. Pros and Cons - Hale et al: 2005

   • Advantages
     • Can be used to generate/test sociological explanations of crime
     • Help gov shape/evaluate policies
       • Can also measure effectiveness of police!
     • Easily accessible and up to date
       • Home Office publishes most crime stats annually
     • Good indicator of change over time
     • Cheap to produce
   • Limitations
     • Unable to account for 'dark figure of crime'
       • 'grey figure' of crime
         • What public report vs what police actually record
           • Reluctance to report crimes
             • Lack of trust in CJS
             • Victim doesn't feel its worth reporting
             • Victim is unaware that they are a victim
             • Fear of repercussions
     • Sources of bias in police-recorded counts of crime
       • Reliance and trust in the police
     • Misleading if used on their own

2. Police and recording crime

   • Targeting particular areas
     • Deprived areas/areas with high population of YPs
       • Police under pressure to push performance
   • Recorded crime
     • Vulnerable to manipulation
       • Manipulation of crime figure to suit the police/Home Office's interests - Reiner: 2000
     • For a crime to be recorded at least 3 things need to happen
       • 1. Awareness that crime has occured
       • 2. Crime must be reported
       • 3. Police/other agency accept law has been broken

3. Victim surveys

   • Large scale questionnaires based household surveys
     • Involves gathering info straight from the public
       • British Crime Survey
     • Asks respondents to mention incidents in which they've been victims of crime
   • Limitations
     • Crimes against corporate orgs aren't included
     • Selection bias
       • Only samples adults in their homes
         • Excludes under 16s
       • Phone surveys rely on widespread home phone ownership
     • Relies on people's memory
   • Advantages
     • More detailed
     • Interviews make people feel more comfortable
     • Higher likelihood of uncovering the dark figure of crime

4. Dark figure of crime

   • Unreported, undiscovered crime
     • Criminology limits itself by looking only @ crimes of status committed by powerless societal groups - Sutherland: 1940
   • Crime stats = inaccurate due to this