l2 : measuring crime : official crime statistics - police recorded crime

Question 1

what 4 key areas do official crime statistics consist of?

Answer 1

• police
• courts
• prison records
• crime survey for england and wales
  collated by home office and published by ONS

Question 2

what three things need to happen for a crime to be recorded by the police?

Answer 2

1) awareness of crime being committed
2) crime needs to be reported
3) crime recorded by authorities

Question 3

what is police recorded crime?

Answer 3

covers all crime statistics that police collect in England and Wales from over 43 police forces. collected by home office. statistics only include crime reported by police / public. collected each year and gives official account of volume of crime. can look for trends in demographics of criminals.

Question 4

give two key current statistics for police recorded crime.

Answer 4

1. out of 100 crimes committed, 47% will be reported to police, 27% will be recorded by police, and 5% will be cleared up in form of conviction
2. 9% rise in offences involving knives or sharp objects from dec 2014 to dec 2015

Question 5

what is the dark figure of crime?

Answer 5

refers to crime that is unrecorded and not known about. some crimes more likely than others to be hidden. eg. gang related crimes, domestic violence

Question 6

why might there be a dark figure of crime (police recording practices)?

Answer 6

a) seriousness - trivial crimes or crimes with not enough evidence may not be recorded
b) counting rules - stats show number of victims of crime rather than number or criminal acts. if a person has been assaulted five times, this would equate to one victim, but five acts, but only one is recorded.
c) coughing - when offenders are encouraged to admit to committing offences in return for lesser sentence. helps police as it gives higher “clear up” rate.
d) cuffing - refers to crimes reported and initially recorded, but then later removed from the stats. practice is referred to as “no crime”. due to officers not believing the victim, or after investigation no crime believed to have taken place. some victims persuaded to withdraw allegations.
e) skewing - involves police forces putting resources into some areas rather than others. could be because some areas have a high crime rate, or some measured by performance indicators. so data is skewed.

Question 7

why might there be a dark figure of crime (police discretion)?

Answer 7

factors affecting whether police record crime or not.
a) corruption - monetary reward may surpass severity of crime and moral compass. take money over protecting population
b) no record - long administration work to complete to file crime
c) stereotypes - internalised discrimination. racist agenda
d) misrecord - mya reduce magnitude + severity of crime to make area look better than it is, to meet progress targets
e) priorities - focus on major crimes rather than smaller trivial crimes.

Question 8

give six advantages of police recorded crime.

Answer 8

1. cheap and readily available. anyone can download the data.
2. large scale and up to date - temporal validity
3. can be compared. identify trends and patterns in criminal profiling.
4. stats can be checked so reliable and consistency can be measured
5. very few ethical problems. always confidential. sociologist does not have to engage in danger to get stats
6. functionalists would support since stats are social facts that measure behaviour scientifically (quantitatively). functionalists view typical criminal as young and working class, based on stats.

Question 9

give six disadvantages of police recorded crime.

Answer 9

1. some crimes (identity theft) not recognised as crimes by victim, becomes part of dark figure
2. subjective nature of whether crime has been committed (fight or assault?), leads to under/over reporting
3. some crimes not reported. victims don’t want to report, station is too far, might want to take law into their own hands, might feel police won’t do anything
4. some crimes not recorded by authorities. guilty people but not in prison, so conviction rates not good guide to how much crime been committed
5. governed by social constructs. unreliable and invalid since crime reports rely on the three stages to reporting crime.
6. marxists would criticise and say stats is tool to control the working class and justify control and oppression. used to scare population about crime and justify use of extra policing.