3 ways of measuring crime

• What are the three ways of measuring crime?

  Official crime statistics, victim surveys and self- report studies
• What are official crime statistics?


  Crimes that are recorded by the police
• What do positivist sociologists say about official crime stats?


  They are social facts and valid, as they show the true crime rate
• What do official crime stats suggest?


  They suggest working class males aged 25 are most likely to offend, with the higher population being black
• Why do functionalists believe official crime stats are valid?


  They believe they are accurate social facts due to durkheim using them to develop laws on prediciting types of people who would commit suicide.Merton also accepted offical crime statistics and said the working class are likely to be criminals.
• Why do realists believe official crime statistics are valid?


  They believe they are accurate as the working class and ethnic minorities are committing more crimes
• Why do interactionists believe official crime stats are invalid?


  The stats are socially constructed by the police who label people.
• Why do marxists believe official crime stats are invalid?


  The stats are created by the ruling class to make it seem the working class are more criminal when in fact its the opposite yet this isnt shown in the statistics
• Why do feminists believe official crime stats are invalid?


  They dont reflect the true scale of crimes committed against women by men.For example,rape
• What are the advantages of official crime stats?


  Can identify trends in recorded crime to compare and prevent future crime.

  See which groups have higher crime rate and target them to reduce crime.

  Easy to access for sociological research as its provided to the public anually.
• What are the disadvantages of official crime stats?


  Socially constructed so its the outcome and choices of those involved creating them

  Many crimes are not reported to the police so will not be included.EG.domestic abuse

  Dark figure crimes arent recorded so do not offer full picture of a crime.EG petty crime or domestic abuse
• What are three stages to get in official crime stats?

  1. Detection
  2. Report to police
  3. Recorded by police
• What is a victim survey?


  A telephone call in which people are asked A telephone call in which people are asked if theyve been victims of crime
• What are the advantages of victim surveys?


  You can uncover some dark figure crimes as people dont have to go to the police

  There is qualitative insight on victim experience to support others
• What are the disadvantages of victim surveys?


  They lack validity as people may lie or be inaccurate.

  There is no way of providing evidence.

  Doesnt cover all crimes eg.sexual assult which is sensitive
• What are self-report studies?


  Surveys asking people to admit to crimes committed by a list and ticking those done.
• What are the advantages of self-report studies?


  Uncover some of the dark figure crime however there are limits to this

  Find out victimless crime eg.illegal drug use

  Can help reveal unaware trends
• What are the disadvantages of self-report studies?


  May lack validity to do exaggeration or lyingMay lack validity to do exaggeration or lying

  Not representative as its mostly done on young people or petty crimes

  Prone to error