Criminal Statistics_1_1

Criminal Statistics

1. Official Crime Stats

   • Offical crime statistics are seen by some sociological theories to be social fact, they believe that they show the true crime rate.
   • Offical crime statistics are collected by the police, courts and prisons.
   • For a crime to be counted three things must happen: Someone has to realise a crime is happening // the crime must then be reported by the police // the police then must record this crime.
   • Functionalists: believe these stats are accurate, they are social facts // Durkheim: social solidarity, brings changes to laws, reinforces the boundaries of society // Merton: anomie.
     • Marxists: believe that the official stats are created by the ruling class to make it seem like the working class are more criminal.
       • Feminists: they feel that official stats do not reflect the true figure of crimes committed against women by men.

2. Self report studies

   • Used as an alternative to official stats, a confidential survey asks people to identify what crimes they have commited from a list
   • Problems with self report studies: issues with validy, people may exaggerate // some of the questions asked on thee surveys are in anyway relevant // not representative of society as a whole.

3. Victim Surveys

   • These surveys ask people if they have been the victim of a crime.
   • They are carried out both on a national and local level e.g. The British Crime Survey.
   • Problems: It relies on a persons memory, people may forget details that are needed // It does not ask about all types of crime // People may not want to admit to being the victim of some crimes // The British Crime Survey only gives the national average picture of crime // Interpretivists would say that you cannot achieve vershten with surveys.