crime statistics Flashcards
what are crime statistics?
a collection of numerical data based on various methods of measuring the amount of crime in society
what is the dark figure of statistics?
crime statistics that are either not recorded or not recorded making crime statistics an unreliable representation of crime
how can we say crime statistics are socially constructed?
official statistics are not objective “facts” as they are a product of human beings making decisions- therefore social constructions
What factors can we say that crime statistics socially constructed?
the victim, wider public and perpetrators are influential
the way the law can change making things legal and illegal will influence statistics
what are the three ways crime statistics come from?
police recorded statistics
victim surveys
self report studies
What are police recoded statistics?
drawn from the records kept by police
these statistics rely on the detecting and the reporting and recording of the crime
what’s a problem with relying on police recorded statistics?
severity of the crime is subjective and due to personal interpretation
what kind of crimes might someone be more likely to report and why?
crimes where there are incentive for the crime
example- insurance claims
what is a plea bargain and how does this impact statistics?
to get least possible years in prison, lawyers get clients to plead guilt, however these pleas are far less serious crimes than might have been committed
how can the role of government and law enforcement agencies affect the validity?
law change overtime meaning crim statistics may represent changes in law rather than the rise and fall of crime
what are victim surveys?
based on surveys asking sample of population size whether they been victims to crimes and if so was it reported by the police
How does CSEW try to maximise the representativeness of the survey?
enormous sample size of 40,000 and is based on all households in England Wales
Why are some crimes excluded from the survey?
surveys excludes sexual offences due to the sensitive nature of these crimes.
especially in face-face environment.
what are three strengths of victim surveys?
overcomes fact that significant proportion offences are not recorded by police
gives good picture of victimisation
can compare local victim surveys to national figures
what are three weaknesses of victim surveys
problems of basing statitsics on victim memories
categorization if crime may be different to the police
may choose not to report it
