F1. Defining And Measuring Crime Flashcards
What is Crime?
An illegal act which is punishable (incarceration or other), after consideration by a judge and jury in a legal trial.
Historical issue with defining crime
What was considered a crime at one point, may not be a crime according to modern standards (e.g. homosexuality legalised, and the Sexual Offences Act 1967)
Cultural issue with defining crime
Smacking a child. Acceptable in some cultures, but not others. 2004 Childs Protection Act made “smacking a child so that a mark is left” illegal.
3 main methods of measuring crime
Official Statistics, Victim Surveys, Offender Surveys
What are Official Statistics
Number of crimes reported and recorded by the police, which have been processed and published by the home office annually.
What are Victim Surveys
50,000 randomly selected households self-report the number and type of crimes which have been committed against them in the past year, and is published by the crime survey for England and Wales annually
What are Offender Surveys
Randomly-selected cohort of criminals, who give types and frequencies of crimes they have committed over a set time period (e.g. the last year), as recorded by The Offender Crime and Justice Survey.
Useful for government as a view of patterns and risk factors for crime at a national scale, and can be used to inform crime prevention/management strategies.
Eval: Stats and Concealing the ‘dark figure’ of crime
75% of crime goes unreported. May be due to lack of standardisation of police recording procedures, as well as the victim revenge/retribution or not trusting police. Farrington and Dowds found that, when police recorded thefts under £10, incidents of theft were higher. Therefore, official stats may be inaccurate.
+ Eval: Victim Surveys
Self-report technique of victim surveys mean that individuals may feel there are less repercussions for their actions
- Eval: Victim Surveys
Issue with self report technique. ‘Telescoping’, victim mistakenly believe that crime has been committed more recently. Therefore, reducing accuracy as more crimes may be accounted for than actually took place.
+ Eval: Offender Surveys
Real-life, practical application. Useful in informing crime prevention and management strategies, due to showing patterns and risk factors of offending behaviour.
- Eval: Offender Surveys
Data may be distorted due to being collected from offenders. Offenders may want to over-exaggerate crimes to give sense of accomplishment and grandeur, or under-exaggerate crimes to diminish responsibility
- Eval: Offender Surveys
Data may be distorted due to being collected from offenders. Offenders may want to over-exaggerate crimes to give sense of accomplishment and grandeur, or under-exaggerate crimes to diminish responsibility
