Patterns of Crime Statistics Flashcards
Official Crime Statistics
They tell us two main things:
>Total numbers of crimes known to the police and court records, produced on a yearly basis.
> Social characteristics of offenders (e.g. ethnicity, gender, etc.)
General things the OCS tells us:
> most offenders are young (16-24 years old)
> most offenders are male (80%)
> most offenders come from poor home backgrounds
> most offenders lack educational qualifications.
What are the problems with official crime statistics? (issues with reporting crime)
> People don’t always report crimes that are “petty” for example minor theft.
> People report crimes when there is an advantage for them, e.g. 98% of car thefts are due to insurance claims.
> Some crimes are private and to be settled privately.
> Victims may not be able to report the crime, they could be dead.
What are the problems with official crime statistics? (issues with recording crime)
> Only about 40% of crimes reported are actually recorded as a crime, some officers may decide not to investigate as it is not worth - creating a dark/hidden figure of unreported crime.
> Counting crimes is problematic - a thief steals from 12 different people in the same house, this counts as 12 different crimes.
> The police have to decide what category the crime falls into - was the crime assault with intent to rob or just assault?
What is the Crime Survey?
> Began in 1982, completed every year with data compared to police data.
A representative sample of 46,000 over 16s is used.
> Main aim of the survey is to examine crime in England and Wales in an independent way from police statistics
It asks people if they have been a victim of crime in the previous year, whether they reported it, and whether police recorded it.
It allows researchers to begin tapping into the dark/hidden figure of crime.
What are the problems/limitations for a victim survey?
> Not all crimes can be directly compared to police recorded crimes, survey does not include theft from businesses and shoplifting in its statistics.
Many crimes are not included in the crime survey due to it being a household survey- fraud and corporate crimes are not counted even though it has caused more loss of money than theft and robberies.
People can only report this to the the survey if they know they are actually a victim of crime, some don’t even realize.
The crime survey does not account for crimes committed against people under the age of 10, OCS does.
What are self report studies?
> A self-report study measures or studies crime where people (normally a small number in a focus group) are asked to talk about crimes that they have committed during the previous year.
People are interviewed or complete self made questionnaires.
Positives:
>Good Validity - you ask people directly and get their opinions and what they think.
>Lots of data both qualitative and quantitative and can be gathered quickly and cheaply from different groups and large sample.
>can help explain what motivates a person to commit crime.
