Topic 9b: Victim Surveys Flashcards
The Crime Survey of England and Wales
The CSEW is a face-to-face survey which originally targeted between 8000 and 11,000 people between 1983 and 2006. However the 2008 survey conducted 46,983 face-to-face structured interviews with a sample of people aged 16 and over living in private households in England and Wales (representative). 22 trained interviewers use laptop computers to record the responses. The sample is randomly selected from the Postcode Address File.
The interview schedule or questionnaire is composed of pre-coded closed questions with fixed choice responses to make it easy to quantify and turn into statistical data (reliable). The interviews take about 48 minutes to complete. Those who take part are asked about their experiences of being a victim of crime in the past year.
The Crime Survey of England and Wales findings
Over the years, data collected from CSEW’s have suggested that:
• Throughout the 1990s, the CSEW showed that only a minority of crimes (1 in 4) were reported to the police – this suggested that police recorded crime statistics were the tip of a much larger crime iceberg. However, the latest CSEW statistics indicate that the gap between crime reported to the CSEW and crimes reported to and recorded by the police is at its most narrow since 1983. This confirms that crime is now falling.
• Violent crime represents around a fifth (21%) of CSEW crime compared with the 19% shown in police statistics. However, half of violent crime involves no injury and since 2007 BCS violent crime has fallen by 12%.
The Crime Survey of England and Wales eval
Ellington argues that the samples used by the BCS are not representative of the national population because owner-occupiers and 16-24 year olds are generally over-represented whilst the unemployed are under-represented.
Marxists point out that the general public are usually unaware that they may have been victims of crimes committed by the economically powerful such as corporate crimes.
Pilkington notes that the CSEW distorts the meaning of the numbers – violent and sexual offences against the person may constitute a relatively small proportion of recorded offences, but they often have a disproportionate traumatic effect upon victims compared with property crime.
Local victim surveys - Islington crime survey 1
The CSEW is a typical cross-sectional survey, and as such may contain some errors – certainly it does not provide detailed information about particular places. This has led to a number of detailed studies of crime focusing on particular areas. These provide specific information about local problems. The most famous of these surveys were the Islington Crime Surveys (1986 and 1990).
Local victim surveys - Islington crime survey 2
The survey in 1990 was based on detailed interviews of a demographically representative sample of 1,600 people living in Islington. The survey found that 30% of respondents had been victims or know victims of street robbery in the previous year. Fear of crime greatly affected the behaviour of many women in inner urban areas. For example, 26% of women aged between 16-24, 27% aged between 25-54 years, and 68% aged over 55 never went out alone at night. 74% of women, compared to men restrict their movements as a precaution against crime. The survey stated that ‘it is not an exaggeration to conclude that many women in inner urban areas live in a state of virtual curfew’.
Ethnicity and victim studies
Victim based studies are gathered by asking victims of crime for their recollection of the ethnic identity of the offender. According the British Crime Survey (1992) the majority of crime is intra-racial, with 88% of white victims stating that white offenders were involved, 3% claiming the offenders were ‘black’, 1% Asian and 5% ‘mixed’.
About 42% of crimes against ‘black’ victims were identified as being committed by ‘black’ offenders and 19% of crimes against Asians were by Asian offenders.
The figures for ‘white’ crimes against ethnic minorities are much higher - about 50%, though this figure needs to be seen against the backdrop of 90% of the population being classified as ‘white’.
Ethnicity and victim studies development and problems
Asking a description is a problem because only 20% of survey recorded crimes are personal crimes where the victim might see the offender. Bowling and Phillips argue that victims are influenced by (racial) stereotypes and ‘culturally determined expectations’ as to who commits crime. Certainly, research by Bowling indicates that where the offender is not known, white people are more likely to ascribe the crime to those of African-Caribbean origin.
weaknesses of victim surveys
- The problem of basing statistics on victims’ memories is that recollections are often faulty or biased.
- The categorisation of what crimes have been committed against them is left to the person filling in the questionnaire – this leads to considerable inaccuracy in the categories.
- Marxists: Victim surveys also omit a range of crimes such as fraud and corporate crime, and any crime where the victim is unaware of or unable to report a crime.
- CSEW does not cover the population living in care homes, halls of residence or the homeless
- Feminists: Despite being anonymous, people appear to under-report sexual offences and domestic violence.
- People may be influenced by the interviewer and modify or alter their answers as a result of wanting to please or impress.
Strengths of victim surveys (conclusion)
They uncover the reasons why individuals do not report a crime
This approach overcomes the fact that a significant proportion of offences are never recorded by the police. It also gives an excellent picture of the extent and patterns of victimisation – something completely missing from official accounts. In recent years, under 16’s have also taken part in victimisation studies.
ICS eval
- Local crime surveys often have small samples so are questioned over their representativeness of the area studied.
- The Corporate and white-collar crimes of the middle class do not appear in local victim surveys
- ‘Victimless’ crimes such as drug-taking do not appear in local victim surveys
Intro
One way of estimating the extent and patterns of crime is that of victim surveys. In these, a sample of the population either locally or nationally is asked which offences have been committed against them over a certain period of time. They are designed to overcome the shortcomings of the under-reporting of crime to official bodies.
