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Measuring Crime

The advantages and disadvantages of crime statistics

What are official crime statistics?

They are produced annually by the Home Office

They are records of criminal activity and police effectiveness

They provide information on crimes known to the police (CKPs)

They give information on the social characteristics of those who have been convicted for criminal behaviour

Burglaries in Cherwell District

2005-2006

Offences per 1000 population

Violence against the person 2005-6

Find out more about the statistics and what they mean at….

www.crimestatistics.org.uk

What are crime statistics used for? To compare crime rates with previous years

To reveal police efficiency

To help the police to concentrate their resources

To provide the public with information about criminal activity

Domestic burglary - British Crime Survey data

Sociologists have treated such statistics with caution. They reveal more about the process of

reporting (by the public) and the collecting (by the police).

They are heavily criticised by social constructionists (labelling theory) who argue that they reveal much about the definitions and stereotypes adopted by the police and courts

Problems with reliability

(a) Unrecorded crime

- Not all crimes are recorded by the police

- There is evidence of a ‘dark figure of

crime’ (Paul Wiles)

- 3 things must happen before a crime is

recorded

1. The crime must come to somebody’s attention.

2. The crime must be reported to the police.

3. The police must be willing to accept that the law has been broken.

The Dark Figure of Crime

OFFICIAL FIGURES

Jones & Young (1989) – criticisms of official crime figures

The crime rate is ‘a barometer in which the glass is darkened, the mercury stuck and nobody agrees on how many times to shake it’

The problem with the crime rate is that it is based on crimes reported to the police

FACTORS AFFECTING THE REPORTING & RECORDING OF CRIME

Public reporting

Invisible crime

The police

The judiciary

Media and politics

Why people do not report crime

See it as too petty Only reported

if beneficial

‘private matter’

Victim not want to harm offender embarrassment

Victim unable to report

Distrust police

Victim unaware

Public reporting of crime

Which crimes are insurance related?

Which crimes could cause major embarrassment?

Who would deal with a matter ‘privately’?

What crimes are too petty?

What crimes do family members do to each other?

Who distrust the police?

Kinsey, Lea & Young (1984)

Inner City residents have little faith in the police.

Working class people will turn a ‘blind eye’ and not get involved!

Fear of reprisal from criminals.

INVISIBLE CRIME Where victims are unaware

White collar crime that’s hard to detect

Ditton – breadsales – overcharging/fiddles

Mars – ‘Cheats at Work’ – theft is a perk

Corporate crime = profits

Hidden by internal inquiry

SEE MARXISM NOTES

THE POLICE

Police response – many crimes defined as petty by the police. Take into account the social background of those reporting.

Categorisation of crime – police ‘filter’ crimes.

Dispersal of resources – targeted resources.

Differential enforcement – regional priorities.

Police discretion – selective policing (gender, ethnicity, class, age, area).

Police culture – attitude to arrests/levels etc.

THE JUDICIARY

Stereotypes play a part in court

Solicitors crafting of cases

Biased jurors

‘middle class/white’ magistrates

Police distortion of facts

MEDIA & POLITICS

Politics – laws are created – biased attention to certain groups

The power of certain groups to shape the law in their interests

Media – deviance amplification and sensitisation

EFFORTS TO UNCOVER A

TRUE PICTURE OF CRIME

1. Self-Report Studies

Questionnaires completed by people – revealing crimes that they have committed.

These question the stereotypical view of a typical criminal.

Officially males to female crime ratio 6:1 Officially w/c to m/c crime ration is 6:1

Surveys reveal a ratio of 3:2 in both cases

Steven Box is critical of these….

Validity – w/c may underestimate and m/c over-exaggerate

Relevance – they include trivial items (riding bike without lights,etc)

Representativeness – they say little about white collar criminality (they won’t confess)

2. The British Crime Surveys

These are ‘victimisation studies’.

They started in 1983 and occur every 2-3 years.

They ask individuals what crimes they have been victim of in the previous year.

Numbers involved – England & Wales (10’392) and Scotland (5000).

The logic behind them…

People will tell researchers more about their experience of crime that to the police (anonymous/confidential)

To overcome the problem with ‘non-reporting of crime’ and the ‘dark figure of crime’

To gain a more accurate picture of criminal activity

The 3 questions they ask

Have you been a victim of crime?

Did you report it to the police?

Did the police record the reported crime?

The results of the surveys

Only 22% of vandalism is reported

Only 18% of theft from dwelling is reported

Only 50% of violent assault is reported

ONLY 34% of crime is reported

Only 8% of vandalism is recorded

Only 11% of sexual offences are recorded

Only 48% of burglaries are recorded

The REAL VICTIMS of crime are:

young

working class

male

black

Pros and con of BCS

PROS They identify specific

victims of crime

They show how the middle class are not the real victims

Most crime never reaches the police

CONS They do not cover all

crime (prostitution, drug, white collar)

Few women report sex offences

Rely on victim’s memory

Depend on people’s definition of crimes

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

Labelling Marxism New Criminology Feminism Functionalism etc

Labelling

Selective policing

Deviance amplification – media

Social construction/ relative deviance

Marxism

Biased laws/police

Middle class escape conviction

White collar - invisible

New Criminology

Racist policing

Suss Laws

Feminism

Control of ‘non-feminine’ women

Chivalry factor

Functionalism etc

Police are neutral

Laws serve dominant values/everyone

Media is neutral and beneficial

Statistics reveal the truth

Working class are real criminals