CRIME AND DEVIANCE: Trends & distribution of C&D Flashcards
What are the major sources of statistical information about crime in the UK?
- Police criminal records: offences reported to and recorded by police
- Victim Surveys: anonymous questionnaires posted to random addresses, asking people about crime
- Self-Report Studies: anonymous questionnaires asking people to admit/answer questions about how many laws they’ve broken
- Crime Survey for England & Wales: face-to-face questionnaire done on the doorstep, asking about the last 12 months.
- Court, prison and police caution records: allow insight where other sources are less helpful
Why is Validity of crime statistics poor?
- Some offences aren’t reported
- Police don’t always record reported offences
- Many crimes aren’t solved or offenders aren’t convicted
- Recording is subjective
- Bias: sine groups report much more than others
Why is Reliability of crime statistics low?
- Classifications of crime change over time
- Random surveys or interviews don;t always access the same type or number of people
- Measures are changed a lot
- Social construction changes reporting
Why are some crimes not reported?
Many crimes are ‘dark crimes’. Crimes might not be reported because
- Viewed as too small/trivial
- It’s private or embarrassing
- Difficult to report
Why might police not record some crimes?
- Think they’re unimportant
- Already been resolved by the time it’s reported
- See victims as unreliable
- Don’t think its an offence
How has reporting and recording of crime changed over time?
- The media: tabloids increasingly focused on crime, making people more alert and anxious about it
- Police attitudes & training: changed to include topics like domestic abuse and hate crimes.
- Increased reporting: most people now see the police as a ‘service’ rather than a ‘force’.
- Changing norms: society changing as a results of movements like feminism and black lives matter. Increasing reports against these groups
- Changing police numbers: fewer police means less recording
- Better equipment:recording rises with more CCTV, traffic cameras etc
- Changes in law: if something becomes illegal it adds to number of crimes reported
What has been done to improve understanding through statistics?
- Victim Surveys (incl CSEW): help to find the ‘real’ burden of crime by getting crimes that aren’t reported or recorded
- Self-report studies: asking people about crime directly means we can get crimes not officially recorded or not effectively reported.
What are some issues with Victim Surveys?
- Victims can exaggerate for sympathy
- People can forget or poorly recall minor crimes
- Victims are often unaware of white-collar crimes against them
- Not everyone responds
- UNder-reporting can happen for extreme or embarrassing crimes
- ‘Victimless crimes’ > surveys show most people see minor crimes as ‘victimless’ so they don’t report them
What are some issues with self-report studies?
- Findings are invalid because people want to present the best image of themselves
- People sometimes report falsely to help or exaggerate findings
- Responses can change when they’re being given to a stranger
- Responses rely on memory which can be changed by leading questions
- People who are busy, disengaged with the ‘system’ are less likely to take part, reducing the sample’s representativeness
What is the Functionalist perspective on the use of statistics in C&D?
Believe in social facts and fixed consensus societal structures so they are always happy to trust and use official statistics
What is the New Right perspective on the use of official statistics in C&D?
Believes structures can change but criminals are always ‘bad people’. They are happy to use statistical methods but want to update them as society changes
What is the Right Realist perspective on the use of official statistics in C&D?
Believe in moral structures rather than societal structures; they use statistics to understand the demographics of C&D but don’t usually trust large scale surveys because they can’t capture individual motives
What is the Interactionist perspective on the use of official statistics in C&D?
Statistics are useless because C&D are just social constructs that cant be measured with objective or quantitative techniques. They will only accept statistics which help understand stereotypes.
What is the Traditional Marxist perspective on the use of official statistics in C&D?
Statistics are gathered by those in power and used in ways that benefit them. Statistics are biased and are useful to understand oppression and inequality but can’t be taken at face value
What is the Neo-Marxist perspective on the use of official statistics in C&D?
More interested in manipulation of the population than power; they distrust statistics because they’re often used to support arguments that harm people
