Statistics and patterns of crime
- Created by: 11pyoung
- Created on: 07-03-18 19:10
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- Statistics and patterns of crime
- Types of crime statistic
- Police recorded statistics
- Police-recorded statistics as social constructions
- Reporting crime
- Crimes cannot be collected if they are not reported in the first place.
- High proportion of crimes are not reported at all to the police
- Individuals are unlikely to report a crime to the police if it is:
- Too trivial to bother the police with
- A private matter
- Too embarrassing
- Individuals are unlikely to report a crime to the police if it is:
- High proportion of crimes are not reported at all to the police
- People may not report crimes to the police if:
- They are not in a position to give information
- They may fear reprisals
- People are more likely to report a crime if:
- They see some benefit for themselves
- They have faith in the police
- Crimes cannot be collected if they are not reported in the first place.
- Recording of crimes
- Nearly one in five crimes go unreported
- Total number of unreported crimes known as 'dark figure'
- Can be estimated but not measured precisely
- Total number of unreported crimes known as 'dark figure'
- Nearly one in five crimes go unreported
- The role of the police
- Police are filtering the information that the public give them based on the following factors:
- Seriousness
- Whether the offence is trivial or not
- Classifying
- Police officer's opinion determines the category and seriousness of the crime
- Discretion
- Anderson et al
- Youths that cooperated with the police are far less likely to be arrested than those who don't
- Anderson et al
- Social Status
- May regard the social status of the person reporting the crime as not being high enough to warrant pursuing the crime.
- Seriousness
- Police are filtering the information that the public give them based on the following factors:
- The Dark Figure
- It is impossible to be precise about the proportion of crime that is unreported to the police
- The role of the Courts
- Statistics reflect the decisions of the court
- British courts work on the assumption that most people will plead guilty
- 75% do so
- The role of government and law enforcement agencies
- Changing social attitudes can influence the behaviour of the police
- Reporting crime
- Drawn from records kept by the police and other official agencies
- Published every 6 months by the home office
- Collected since 1847
- Provides an excellent historical overview of changing trends over time
- Collected since 1847
- Gives an accurate view of the way the justice system processes offenders through arrests, trials, punishments etc
- Police-recorded statistics as social constructions
- Victim studies
- Surveys asking a sample of people whether they have been victims of crime, and whether it was reported to the police.
- Useful for estimating unrecorded crime and looking at trends
- But doesn't cover victimless crimes
- Strengths
- Overcomes the fact that a significant proportion are ever recorded by the police
- Weaknesses
- The problem of basing statistics on victim's memeories is that recollectors are often faulty or biased
- The categorisation of the crime which was committed against the victim is left down to the victim
- Victim surveys usually omit a range of crimes
- Despite being anonymous, many sexual crimes remain underreported
- Patterns of Victimisation
- Produced interesting findings on the patterns of victimisation
- Self-report studies
- Surveys asking people if they have committed crimes
- Sometimes conducted by government organisations
- Rely on truthfulness of respondents
- Useful for showing the types of people who commit crime
- Weaknesses
- The problem of Validity
- Respondents may lie or exaggerate
- The Problem of Representativeness
- Most self-report studies are on young people and students
- The problem of Relevance
- The majority of crimes uncovered tend to be trivial
- The problem of Validity
- Surveys asking people if they have committed crimes
- Police recorded statistics
- Types of crime statistic
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