Section (b) measurements of crime Flashcards
What are 3 sources of official crime statistics
Hospitals
Courts - conviction records
Police counts
How can official statistics allow trends to be identified
Show changes in crime rates over time
What else do official statistics allow for?
Comparisons
What do sociologists see official statistics as?
A social construct
Why don’t official statistics accurately reflect crimes?
Unreported and unrecorded crimes don’t appear in official statistics
What are self-report studies?
Research that uses confidential questionnaires or interviews to ask people what cries or deviant acts they have committed
What have self-report studies revealed about patterns of crime?
That there are significant numbers crimes committed by women and the middle class
What do self-report studies and victim surveys uncover?
Crimes that were not reported to the police and why they were unreported
Advantage of self-report study to respondent
Anonymity and confidentiality mean that there are no consequences for those who admit to crimes
What have self-report studies revealed about patterns of crime?
That there are significant numbers crimes committed by women and the middle class
What do self-report studies uncover?
Crimes that were unreported and why they were unreported
Advantage of self-report study to respondent
Anonymity and confidentiality mean that there are no consequences for those who admit to crimes
Why might people be more willing to answer self-report studies?
Anonymity and confidentiality
Why aren’t self-report studies representative?
Most have been of adolescents in school, so whole categories of crime are ignored e.g. middle class crime
Why might there be a problem with the validity of self-report studies?
Respondents may exaggerate to impress their peers or the researcher. Researchers can’t be sure of how many and which responses are valid
Why might there be a problem with the relevance of self-report studies?
Some include questions on trivial offences (e.g. travelling on public transport without paying) that are a test of honesty rather than criminality.
What type of crime can’t victim surveys cover?
Victimless crimes e.g. drug abuse
What encourages victims to be honest in victim surveys?
They are anonymous
Why is there a greater response rate for victim surveys
People are more likely to admit to crimes they have been victims of than crimes they have committed
How are victim surveys unable to cover all types of crime?
They cannot include victimless crimes e.g. drug abuse,
What victims aren’t usually included victim surveys
Children, as they are often not respondents
Example of a crime that is still underreported despite the use of victim surveys
Sexual offences
Why is the validity of victim surveys questionable?
They rely on the memories of the respondents, which may be faulty e.g. forgetting whether an offence happened in the past year
How might police manipulate the statistics?
Crimes are made to disappear by recording them as a false report or downgrading their seriousness
What else shapes the way police record crimes?
The media and political pressures, e.g. being under pressure to clear up crimes about which there is a moral panic
Examples of invisible crimes that don’t go into police statistics
Corporate crime, white collar crimes
