Measuring Crime

Official Statistics
1. Based on crimes reported to police and recorded in official figures
2. Hollin (1992) suggested that the OCS only accounts for 25% of actual crime
3. 'Dark figure' of crime: offences that are unreported or don't appear in the OCS
4. Reasons why crimes are not reported
  1. There is no victim
  2. Victim is too afraid
  3. Too trivial
  4. Can't be bothered/inconvenient
  5. Mistrust the police
  6. Perpetrator is a friend or family member
5. Reasons why crimes are not recorded
  1. Insufficient time
  2. Too trivial
  3. Not a priority
  4. Lack of evidence
  5. One of several similar offences
  6. Victim withdraws charge
  7. Police recording rules
6. Officially recorded crime is affected by what are known as police recording rules
  1. Determine whether or not a crime is deemed recordable by authorities
  2. Can vary according to priority of government and individual police force
Victim Surveys
1. Asking people if they have been victims over a specific time period
2. CSEW carried out roughly every 2 years
3. Interviews with a huge sample
4. Participants are people aged over 16 from randomly selected households
5. In 2006/7 it was based on a sample of over 47,000 people, plus a booster sample of 4,000 people aged between 16 and 24
6. Booster sample was necessary as many of original randomly selected people from this age group had decline
7. Participants were asked if they had been a victim of crime in the last year
8. Interviews were structured, pre-set questions with optional responses
9. Survey showed victim reports were greater than police statistics
10. CSEW also collects information about fear of crime and attitudes to crime
11. Carried a recommendation that the survey should cover under 16s by conducting interviews with 10 to 15 year olds as well
12. CSEW is the largest and most influential of victim surveys
13. There are more specific surveys e.g Commercial Victimisation Survey
Problems in defining crime
1. Factors that need to be considered when defining a crime
  1. Historical context
    1. What is defined as a crime at one point in time might not be considered to be a crime at a different point in time
  2. Culture
    1. Differences in cultural acceptability
  3. Age
    1. Important factor in determining whether or not a person is a criminal
  4. Specific circumstance
    1. E.g a woman stealing food to feed her hungry child we wouldn't want to say is a criminal
    2. Deviance approach: classifying behaviour as a crime if it breaches codes of socially acceptable behaviour

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Measuring Crime

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