These are generally large scale surveys of the population in which people are interviewed and asked what crimes have been commited against them in a period of time eg. the British Crime Survey (BCS)
Victim Surveys include crimes that have not been reported to the police so it is an important survey
It collects information about:
the victims of crime
the circumstances in whoch incidents occur
the behaviour of offenders in commiting crimes
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Advantages and Disadvantages of Victim Surveys
Advantages:
May uncover some of the hidden figure of crime
Focuses on the problems as people experienced them
Identifies local, geographically focused figures
Disadvantages
Not all crimes will be reported for various reasons eg. a victim is embarrassed to reveal they have been the victim of certain crimes eg. ****
Participants may lie
In some cases, the victim cannot be questioned eg. child abuse
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Self-report Surveys
The basic approach of the self report method is to ask individuals of they have engaged in criminal behaviour and how often they have done so
They include lists of criminal or deviant acts that are given to people and they are asked to tick off the activities which they have committed within a period of time
It is always anonymous so that people feel free to admit crime
Self report studies suggest that criminal activity is more common than official statistics indicate
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