Measurements and defining of crime basic info

Question 1

How are official statistics used to measure crime?

Answer 1

Statistics are recorded by the police and government agencies, data has been collected since 1857 so offers an excellent historic overview

Question 2

Name 2 problems with the official statistics

Answer 2

Benefit: middle classes have more faith in the police than the working classes, crime rates in different areas will determine attention to a single crime
Recording of crimes: largely problematic, in 1 year 40% of crimes that were reported didn’t make the statistics

Question 3

Name 3 weaknesses with victim surveys

Answer 3

Recollections are often faulty or biased, Problems with categorization of crimes, and under-reporting of sex offences

Question 4

What did the highly recognised Islington crime surveys (Harper et al. 1986 and Jones et al. 1995) reveal about crime in the area?

Answer 4

That the British Crime statistics had massively underestimated the amount of victimization in ethnic minority groups

Question 5

Name a strength of Self report studies

Answer 5

Ability to find hidden offenders, can gather information across certain social factors such as age, gender or social class that may otherwise be inaccessible, also finding out about victimless crime, such as drug abuse