measuring crime Flashcards

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1
Q

What are ways to measure crime rates?

A

Official statistics
Victim surveys
Offender surveys

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2
Q

What are official statistics?

A

Government records of crime reported to police
Published annually - snapshot of specific regions
Allows development of crime prevention strategies

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3
Q

What are victim surveys?

A

Record experience of crime
Document crimes they’ve been a victim of in survey
Random selection of households

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4
Q

What are offender surveys?

A

Volunteer details of crimes they’ve committed
Targets groups of likely offenders based on risk factors
Self report
Looks at repeat offending and trends

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5
Q

Evaluation - official statistics

A

Unreliable - underestimate crime
Only includes 25% of crime
75% is the dark figure - unreported crime

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6
Q

Evaluation - victim surveys

A

Less likely to conceal dark figure
OS said 2% decrease in crime, victim survey said 3% increase
Rely on accurate recall - telescoping where people think something happened this year

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7
Q

Evaluation - offender surveys

A

Shows how many people commit crime
Unreliable - conceal or exaggerate
Middle class crime concealed

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8
Q

Evaluation - politics of measuring crime

A

Political parties will favour certain methods
Opposing party will want one to make government look bad
Party in power will show decrease

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9
Q

Evaluation - multidisciplinary approach

A

All crime figures should be scrutinised

Combo of all methods - best insight

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