Measuring Crime

Question 1

Describe Official Crime Statistics

Answer 1

They are collected by police and other agencies.
Published every 6 months.
Show changing trends over the years.
Show how criminal justice system work.
Not good at showing how much crime there really is. Just what the police have reported and recorded.

Question 2

Describe Victim Surveys

Answer 2

Can be a local or national sample, asking which offences have been committed against them over a certain period of time.
Best known one is The Crime Survey of England and Wales.
Been collected every year since 1982 and regarded most reliable in indicating crime trends.
Exposes the dark figure of crime not recorded or reported.

Question 3

Describe Self-Report Studies

Answer 3

When a selected group or cross-section of the population are asked what offences they have committed. Show less of a gap between male and female offending rates compared to Official Crime Statistics.

Question 4

Describe Qualitative Research Methods for Crime and Deviance

Answer 4

Covert Participant Observation (used by Patrick (1973), Holdaway (1996), Daly (2003)).
Overt Participant Observation (used by Parker (1974)).
Interviews (used by Atkinson (1978) and Laurie Taylor(1984)).
Case Studies (used by Hobbs and Cunningham (1998)).