Lesson 2 - Police Recorded Crime

Question 1

What is Police Recorded Crime?

Answer 1

Crime stats collected in England and Wales

Stats collated by Home Office

Question 2

What percentage of crime is reported/recorded/convicted to police (2015 stats)

Answer 2

47% reported

27% recorded

5% convicted

Question 3

What is the dark figure of crime

Answer 3

Crime not reported or not known about

Eg molestation (fear of retaliation)
Eg petty crimes (fear nothing would be done)

Question 4

What is one reason for the dark figure of crime to exist(1)

Answer 4

Some crimes are too trivial to gain attention of police, so not accounted for in stats

Eg theft, vandalism

Question 5

What is one reason for the dark figure of crime to exist(2)

Answer 5

Home Office guidelines say stats indicate number of victims, not acts of crime

1 person being a victim of 5 crimes counts as 1 criminal act

Question 6

What is one reason for the dark figure of crime to exist(3)

Answer 6

Coughing

Offender encouraged to admit more offences in return for lesser sentence

Makes police force look like there’s a higher clear up rate

Question 7

What is one reason for the dark figure of crime to exist(4)

Answer 7

Cuffing

Crimes reported/recorded are removed

This is called “no crime”

Police don’t believe crime took place/don’t believe victim

Question 8

What is one reason for the dark figure of crime to exist(5)

Answer 8

Skewing

Police resources disproportionately distributed to areas with higher crime rates

Therefore more crime stats because more resources used to identify crime in the first place

Question 9

(+) Police stats are cheap and readily available

Answer 9

Home Office publishes them annually

Can be accessed by anyone on the internet

Question 10

(+) Police stats are immense

Answer 10

Very up to date
high temporal validity

Very large scale
representative/generalisability

Question 11

(+) Police stats can be compared w/ prev stats(2)

Answer 11

Quantitative data

Trends and patterns can be identified

when looking at criminal profiling
seeing if crime has increased or decreased over years

Question 12

(+) Police stats can be compared w/ prev stats(2)

Answer 12

Quantitative data

Reliability

can be checked on consistency

Question 13

(+) Police stats approved by Functionalists

Answer 13

Stats are social facts that measure behaviour quantitatively

Functionalists view typical criminal as young & WC
police stats reflect this to be true

Question 14

(-) Marxists criticise police stats

Answer 14

Tool used to control bourgeoisie
justifies UC control/oppression

Scare population about crime
justifies extra policing

Question 15

(-)