5.1 Defining And Measuring Crime

Question 1

define/summarise crime

Answer 1

refers to any behaviour that is unlawful and punished by the state
it is an act that is harmful to an individual, group or society as a whole

Question 2

evaluate the definition of crime

Answer 2

crime is a social construction related to cultural views. It varies across countries and historical periods
universal concepts, e.g. murder, rape, theft; although there are variations with the law (e.g. crime passionel)

Question 3

summarise ways of measuring crime

Answer 3

official statistics - produced in the uk by the Home Office (incidents reported to or by the police) and ‘National Crime Reporting Standard’ (NCRS; reports any incident, even those not ‘crimes’)
victim surveys - crime survey for england and wales (CESW): 50,000 households interviewed, randomly selected from postal addresses
offender surveys - offending crime and justice survey (OCJS): conducted for four years with same 5,000 people

Question 4

what does NCRS stand for?

Answer 4

National Crime Reporting Standard

Question 5

what does CESW stand for?

Answer 5

Crime Survey for England and Wales

Question 6

what does OCJS stand for?

Answer 6

Offending Crime and Justice Survey

Question 7

evaluate ways of measuring crime

Answer 7

official statistics - the ‘dark figure’ of crime: 58% may go unreported to the police (Walker et al.) because people may think the police will ignore them or they may wish to avoid the stigma
victim surveys - do show the ‘dark figure’, though people may still be reluctant to report everything; sampling may be biased (only 75% respond and sample is just of people with postal addresses), data was capped at five incidents and may miss three million incidents in a year (Farrell and Pease)
offender surveys - offenders may not be honest about criminal behaviours and drug use, though they claim to be (Hales et al.)