Measuring Crime Flashcards
Official Statistics
for comp to discover trends
to look at police efficiency
show where police should concentrate resources to dec crime
provide public info about crime patterns & socios basis to explain crime
to reveal police assumps & stereotyping
Sources of Stats
- police recorded crime (PRC)
- victim Surveys
- Self Report Studies
- Court & Prison Records & Records on Police Causation
Victim Surveys
give m accurate pic than PRC - eg Crime Survey for Eng & Ws (CSEW) - face to face study
Self Report Surveys
anonymous questionaires eg Home Office’s Offending Crime & Justice Survey - annually 2003-6
Court & Prison Records & Records on Police Causation
reveal some of the charas of offenders who are caught
1930-50
Trends in Crime
gradual rise - end of war - soldiers = frustrated - inc standard of living - leads to relative dep
1950-80
Trends in Crime
steeper rise = econ growth & soc anomie - w/ changes in the role of women & wider soc
1980 - mid 1990s
Trends in Crime
rapid inc - econ recession - higher rela dep & unemploy
Mid 1990 - 2016
Trends in Crime
grad annual decline - could be due to changes in reporting - new types of crime not included - cyber crime
The Official Crime Rate
stats collected using police, court & prison recs
British Crime Survey
stats collected through vic surveys & self reports - 50,000 ppl over 16 asked annually if vic of crime
VS - speak to ppl to get stats - m than just PRC
SRS - completed by prisoners in custody
Official Crime Statistics are a Social Construction
dif to measure
= wide agreement w/in a given cul over what = crime
= disagree w/in same cul when it comes to aspects of the term esp periphery issues
crim stats = soc construction -product of soc process
= fund difs between culs w/ what constitutes as a crime
Social Construction of Crime
m approach crime stats w/ caution
are they reliable, how can we be sure they are classified correctly, what happens if m than one crime at same time, what about validity
police officers have some discretion over crime classifi
2014 = calc 1 in 5 crimes rep to police = not recorded
only 27% = detected/cleared up 2014/15
Maguire (2002)
estimates only 3% of all crime ends up w/ conviction
Functionalist View on Statistics
share view of positivists & tend to accept stats uncrit
inspired sub cul theory - started w/ view that crime = young WC & male
accept official stats at face value - see them as reliable & valid
Marxist View on Statistics
recog the systematic bias in fav of powerful in app of law
gen higher in soc system less likely they are to = arrested & convicted
stress sig dark side of white collar & corp cime = invisible & not in stats
show biased view = constructed by RC ignores white collar crime - suggests = WC
Interactionist View on Statistics
sees crime stats as largely useless & distortion of reality
argue stats = soc construc & tell nothing about real level of crime only who compiled them
stats = soc construc & only useful for iden stereos & assumps
labelling
Labelling Theory View on Statistics
interested in questions - why some acts are viewed as m dev than others & why some groups = labelled dev
Left Realist View on Statistics
accept official stats have some values & shouldn’t be rejected
accept view typ offen = young, male WC & dispropor Black
using vic studies show ppl (poor & vul) have real fears of crime
stats = broadly correct but under rep white collar & corp crime exag WC crime participants by ethn min
Feminist View on Statistics
crime stats underplay extent of female vics - personal attack dv
prev police saw home attacks as doms = reluc to get involv
many female vics of physical & sexual attack = reluc to rep
stats underrep female crimes & crimes against women - dv/rape
