topic 2 — measuring crime

Question 1

what is the social distribution of crime, deviance and victimisation according to ONS?

Answer 1

working class
young
male
disproportionately likely to be black

Question 2

3 main measures of crime

Answer 2

1. official crime statistics (OCS) e.g. police records, Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW)
2. victim surveys including CSEW
3. self-report studies

Question 3

4 advantages of police statistics

Answer 3

1. functionalism/right realism: widely geographically 🌎 representative as they’re from 45 territorial police forces. huge data set, generalisable, everyone knows 999
2. reliable — standardised due to thorough training and consistency; careful operationalisation
3. functionalists: due to social value consensus, police represents EVERYONE’s views. figures reflect reality and aren’t socially constructed, high in validity
4. easy to access, up-to-date, few ethical worries due to anonymity

Question 4

4 disadvantages of police statistics

Answer 4

1. interactionism: reflect a narrow, biased version of reality so low in validity. incomplete due to dark figure of crime. cicourel: negotiation of justice creates dark figure. crime may go unreported (embarrassment, ignorance, triviality, lack of faith in police, lack of power, fear of retaliation)
   2014 HM Inspectorate of Constabulary: 1 in 5 crimes reported to police aren’t recorded
2. Marxism: Gordon selective law enforcement, bourgeiosie selectively enforce law against less powerful groups, applying law to working class to enforce illusion of perfect capitalist system
3. Waddington canteen culture: police statistics reflect police stereotypes of typical criminals. self fulfilling prophecy due to racism, ageism, classism etc. stop and search system allows room for unconscious bias
4. Feminists and interpretivists: police stats lack validity and do not focus on the individual experiences of the victim. Qualitative empathetic approach better.

Question 5

3 advantages of CSEW (structured interviews, victim surveys)

Answer 5

1. positivism: high in representativeness due to nationally representative sample of 35,000 adults and 3,000 children. response rate 2013 was 75%
2. high in reliability due to professional training and structured nature of interviews. Standardised, operationalised
3. high in validity due to comfort of respondent’s homes, natural environment, privacy measures (responding via laptop in privacy to avoid embarrassment)

Question 6

3 disadvantages of CSEW

Answer 6

1. doesn’t reflect white collar crime. Marxism, Snider: focus on street crime over corporate crime is classist.
2. low validity: victims of crime may be unaware they are victims or hold subjective views of it, so not valid. some crimes are victimless
3. 25% don’t respond: lower representativeness, lower generalisability

Question 7

3 advantages of smaller-scale victim surveys

Answer 7

1. uncovers wider impact of crime on community. Impact on individual, vulnerable lives e.g. Jones et al Islington Crime Survey 1986 : 1/3 of all households touched by serious crime in the last year. Qualitative element increases detail and validity: “virtual curfew”, 28% felt unsafe in their own homes.
2. good for testing success of social policy initiatives. Farrington and Painter: victim survey to test success ot improved street lighting for reducing crime. Respondents felt safer, victimhood fell by 43%
3. feminism: start with the victim: empathetic, in-depth qualitative response. Dobash and Dobash: two female researchers did unstructured interviews on women who experienced domestic abuse, 23% of sample experienced violence before marriage but hoped it would cease after marriage. Other 77% only experienced after. few women responded physically, became ‘routine’ and ‘normal’

Question 8

4 disadvantages of smaller-scale victim surveys

Answer 8

1. small sample reduces generalisability. Dobash and Dobash used sample from domestic violence hostel, not representative or generalisable to men
2. victim surveys ignore victimless crimes, e.g. corporate crime like tax fraud
3. functionalists believe the reliability and representativeness of police statistics is better. New Right agree, OCS can be used to target underclass with policies for crime reduction
4. Left realists: no measure is perfect, but combining them is best

Question 9

3 advantages of self report studies

Answer 9

1. they provide evidence against the typical delinquent shown in crime rate. Graham and Bowling 1995: crime rates for black and white people almost equal (44% white, 43% black). Delinquent youth more likely to begin to desist from crime if strong adult relationships, return to full time education, children, stable employment. Counters ideas shown in official crime rates
2. Reveals hidden figure of crime, overcomes chivalry thesis. Raises validity in terms of gender. Ann Campbell: women to men crime ratio 1:1.5 rather than 1:5 as OCS suggests
3. Shows trends overtime. Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime studied crime in youth over secondary school years, strongest correlation found was between offending rates and use of alcohol and drugs. Boys twice as criminal as girls

Question 10

disadvantages of self report study

Answer 10

1. feminism: SRS fails to highlight different treatment of women in CJS, victim studies better and reveal womens’ victimhood
2. SRS often carried out on youth and minor crimes, so older population isn’t represented. Not generalisable or representative
3. false claims? Farrington — older people are dishonest about the crimes they’ve committed to maintain facade of respectability. Communities who distrust the police may distrust sociologists and be untruthful.