Crime Statistics Flashcards
Methods of measuring and recording crime…
> Police recorded crime, based on police records (Official Statistics)
> Victim surveys
> Self-reporting surveys
What are official crime statistics (ONS)?…
> OCS seeks patterns and trends
> The volume of crime - if it is increasing or decreasing
> The main types of crime
> The typical social characteristics of the people who are involved
Usefulness of ONS…
> The OCS are useful in assessing the effectiveness of criminal justice initiatives such as ASBOs.
> Published every six months by the Home Office.
Have been collected since 1857 and so we can use them to compare trends over time.
Weaknesses of ONS…
> Crimes cannot be recorded if they are not reported.
> The British Crime Survey note some reasons crimes aren’t recorded; if they believe that it is too trivial, it is a private matter, it is embarrassing other reasons include no longer a victim (Murder or a victimless crime).
> There is also an issue with the crimes that the police CHOOSE to record (57% of all crimes reported to police each year fail to show up in OCS).
> Police ‘filtering’ could be due to the severity of the crime, the social status of the victim, the classification of the crime, the discretion of the officer and even an officer’s desire to be promoted (meeting targets, etc.).
> The role of the courts; OCS also reflect the decisions and sentences of the courts. For example, British courts assume that the majority of criminals will plead guilty (plea-bargaining). Therefore the seriousness of the crime might be downgraded.
> The role of the government; what is considered to be a criminal act changes over time depending on cultural changes and the influence of powerful groups. E.g. Police response to cannabis use.
Reasons for the dark figure of crime…
> Some crimes are not visible and therefore aren’t included in the OCS, e.g. tax/VAT fraud (and these offences are more likely to be committed by wealthy people).
> Offenders may belong to agencies such as the Army, which police and punish individuals outside of the legal system. Similarly, schools may not report crime as it reflects badly on them.
> Evidence shows certain groups have no faith in the police.
> Some victims do not recognise that a crime has occurred; such as child abuse.
What crimes are reported?…
> Andy Pilkington argues that the OCS are only useful for telling us about the increased reporting of certain crimes rather than increases in the crimes themselves.
> Public intolerance of property crime has increased as it has become more prosperous and materialistic.
> The OCS for some juvenile crimes might simply reflect public intolerance fuelled by journalists’ construction of moral panics which increase the profile of folk devils. This then leads to deviancy amplification.
> Criminologists estimate that for every 100 crimes committed, 47 will be reported to the police, 27 will be recorded by the police and 5 will be cleared up in the form of a conviction/caution.
> Self-report studies indicate that the volume of crime should be greater.
Victim surveys…
> The best known victim survey is the British Crime Survey which has been collected every year since 1982.
> It acts as a sample of the population, locally or nationally, which offences have been committed against them over a certain period of time.
> It overcomes the non-recording problem.
> It also paints a picture of the extent of victimisation.
Weaknesses of victim surveys…
> It is assuming the validity of victim’s memories.
> The categorisation of the crime is left up to the victim to decide; inaccurate.
> They omit certain crimes; murder, fraud, corporate crime, etc.
> Despite anonymity, certain crimes go unreported, such as sexual abuse.
> Under 16s are not accounted for
Victim surveys rely on victims knowing they have been a victim.
> The media play a key role in this and sometimes heighten our sensitivity towards certain forms of behaviour (sensitising). A positive example is domestic violence.
Self-report studies…
> These are surveys which ask a selected group of people what crimes they have committed.
> They are useful in that they reveal a lot about the kind of offenders not caught by the police (age, sex, etc. of ‘hidden offenders’).
> It is also a good way of finding out information about victimless crimes.
Weaknesses of self-report studies…
> People may lie or exaggerate (not valid results).
> Not representative (none compiled on drug lords for example).
> Because of the above issue, crimes uncovered tend to be more trivial (are they relevant?).
Explosion of data…
> Maguire (2002) has pointed out that since the 1970s there has been a huge increase in the statistics and information gathered about crime, before it was just OCS.
> Garland (2001) argues that this has not just occurred due to a desire for more information-we are, in late modern times, becoming more uncertain of the government’s ability to handle crime rates.
Risk Society…
> The government therefore engages in ‘risk management’ by collecting as much data as possible on crime so that it can better assess the risk.
> Part of this risk management is to try to push responsibility back onto individuals-statistics tell them how to avoid becoming victims.
> Giddens, a risk society is “a society increasingly preoccupied with the future (and also with safety), which generates the notion of risk”.
> Risk society, explained Beck, is “an inescapable structural condition of advanced industrialisation” and “Modern society has become a risk society in the sense that it is increasingly occupied with debating, preventing and managing risks that it itself has produced.”.
Functionalist, New Right, and Right Realist approaches to the use of official crime statistics…
Broadly accept statistics as accurate and representative of most crime, and useful for establishing patterns and trends in crime, and as a base for forming hypotheses and building theories.
Interactionist (labelling theory) approaches to the use of official crime statistics…
Statistics are social constructions, and useful only to reveal the stereotypes, labelling, and assumptions of the public, and the institutional sexism and racism of the CJS. The pattern shown in statistics further fuels these stereotypes, which generates a self-fulfilling prophecy, as they provide a guide for the police on the ‘typical offender’ as they go about their work.
Marxist/neo-Marxist approaches to the use of official crime statistics…
Statistics provide a biased view of crime, as they under-represent crimes of the powerful - white-collar and corporate crime - and give the impression that the main criminals are working-class.
