Crime stats

Question 1

3 ways of measuring crime?

Answer 1

Victim surveys.
Self-reporting surveys.
Police recorded crime.

Question 2

Benefits of Official crime stats.

Answer 2

Assess effectiveness of justice system.
Frequent.
Collected since 1857, compare historical trends.

Question 3

Weaknesses of official crime stats.

Answer 3

Can’t be recorded if not reported- embarrassing, fear.

Police choose what to record (57% all crimes reported fail to appear in OCS).

Police ‘filtering’ (victim social status, crime classification).

Role of courts; OCS reflect decisions and court sentences.

Role of gov; what is considered criminal changes (culture and influence of powerful groups).

Offenders belonging to agencies (army) dealt with outside of system.

Question 4

Evidence form criminologists that support official crime stats weaknesses.

Answer 4

Every 100 crime committed, 47 reported, 27 recorded, 5 convicted/ cautioned.

Question 5

What does Pilkington say about what’s recorded?

Answer 5

OCS useful for telling us about increased reporting of crime than increases in crime.

Question 6

What are victim surveys?

Answer 6

Sample of population.

Shows victimisation.

Question 7

Strength of victim surveys.

Answer 7

Overcomes non-recoding problem.

Question 8

Weakness’s of victim surveys.

Answer 8

• Assumes validity of victims memories.
• Don’t include some crimes (fraud).
• Despite anonymity, certain crime unreported.
• Under 16s not accounted.
• Rely on victims knowing they’re victim.

Question 9

What are self- report studies?

Answer 9

• Ask selected group what crimes they’ve committed.
• Reveal info about kinds of offenders not caught by police.
• Find out info about victimless crimes (drugs, prostitution).

Question 10

Weaknesses of self-report studies?

Answer 10

• Lie/ exaggerate.
• Not representative.
• Un-relevant crimes.

Question 11

What does Maguire say about stats since the 1970’s?

Answer 11

since 1970’s increase in stats and info gathered about crime.