Victimization Studies

Victim Surveys –

• Victim surveys are used alongside official statistics, in order to see the victim’s views on crime in comparison to the official records. An example of a victim survey is The British Crime Survey
• The surveys are sent out annually, and ask the respondent whether they have been a victim of crime in the previous year
• These surveys are beneficial in that they give an indication of the numbers of unreported crimes. In 1997 for example, it was estimated that around 46% of crimes reported to the police were not recorded as crimes under BCS categories: some were recorded as other crimes, and others were ‘no crimed’ – not recorded because it was regarded as too trivial, police thought no incident had occurred, there was no evidence, or the victim did not wish to take the matter further
• When compared to official statistics, victim surveys show that official statistics may be misleading in terms of kinds of crimes taken place and amounts of reported and recorded…