Crime Statistics

Police Crime Statistics

• Based upon police reported and recorded crime; a form of official statistics, quantitative data. 
• They are collected all the time.
• They illustrate a steady decrease in crime to the point where crime rates seem to have almost halved since the turn of the century. 
• Trends include the over-reporting of property crimes, as well as the under-reporting of white-collar crime, sexual crimes, child abuse, and victimless crime such as recreational drug abuse. 
• These crimes may be under-reported because the victim is afraid; the victim may be in denial or may not know that they are a victim; the victim may not think the police can do anything about the crime, or may not think that it's worth reporting. 
• The Dark Figure of crime represents unreported and unrecorded crimes. 

Police Manipulation

• In recent years we have become increasingly aware (largely through the media) that much of the decline in crime, according to police statistics, is a result of changes to police practices, which have been largely shaped by a need to hit targets set by the…