Measuring crime

Question 1

What Are the three ways of measuring crime?

Answer 1

Official statistics
Victimisation survey (csew)
Self-report studies

Question 2

What is the definition of official statistics?

Answer 2

Is data collected by government agencies and published by the home office every 6 months drawn from records kept by police

Question 3

What are the strengths of official statistics?

Answer 3

Collected since 1857 so gives a historical overview of changing trends
Able to identify patterns and trends
Generalisable, large sample =lots of data
Reliable as they are consistent and same methods are used every year
Gives knowledge of arrests, trials and punishments

Question 4

What are the weaknesses of official statistics?

Answer 4

Lacks validity, as quantitative data doesnt always portray an accurate picture
Two main factors affect the validity of official statistics: under recorded crime and under reported crime

Question 5

What may be some reasons as to why crime is under-reported?

Answer 5

Fear of putting themselves in danger e.g. gangs
Corporate and white-collar crime is extremely difficult to detect thus report
Fear of being humiliated e.g. under age friends drinking

Question 6

Why might crimes be under recorded?

Answer 6

Police not taking smaller crimes seriously, human error
Social status software the patient may affect recording as doctors for example have more to lose than a yob
Police have the discretion to press charges and might not always consider minor offences as worthwhile

Question 7

What might official statistics describe as a typical criminal?

Answer 7

Young
Male 
Black 
Working class 
From inner cities

Question 8

What is the definition of a Victimisation survey?

Answer 8

The British crime survey is a face to face survey, asking people to report crimes they have been a victim of in the last 12 moths

Question 9

What does the surveys allow us to do?

Answer 9

Find the hidden figure of crime

Question 10

What is a finding from the bcs?

Answer 10

Found 1 in 5 offences that should have been recorded were not

Question 11

What are the strengths of the Victimisation surveys?

Answer 11

Allows for a more valid picture of crime because it’s not limited by under recorded crime a d under reported crime
Reliable as methods are consistent

Question 12

What are the weaknesses of Victimisation survey?

Answer 12

Relying on people’s memory is a problem because inaccuracies in the recall might affect validity of the survey
People may not categories crimes in the same way, which distort results from year to year affecting the reliability

Question 13

What is the definition of Self-report studies?

Answer 13

A series of questions asking people to honestly confess to crimes they have committed over a period of time

Question 14

What is an example of Self–report?

Answer 14

Offending, crime and justice survey

Question 15

What does Ann Campbell suggest?

Answer 15

There is only a slight difference between the amount of men and women committing crime

Question 16

What does Steven box say?

Answer 16

For more serious crime s,there is a bigger male to female ratio, similar to official statistics5:1 male to female ratio

Question 17

What are weaknesses of Victimisation surveys?

Answer 17

Box argues that self report studies lack validity because offenders are likely to under or over exaggerate crimes
The sample is not representative as it is based on mainly young people