Sources and statistics

• Why are crime statistics useful?


  Compare trends in crime

  Measure police efficiency

  Where to concentrate police resources

  Provide public info

  Provided a basis to explain crime

  Reveal police assumptions
• Where do crime statistics come from?


  Police recorded crime (PRC)

  Victim survey

  Self report studies

  Court and prison records and police cautions
• What is the purpose of the Police recorded crime (PRC) and the Crime survey for England and Wales (CSEW)?


  Forms a new basis for official crime statistics and provide a more comprehensive picture of crime. PRC however excludes less serious offences and CSEW exclude crimes against businesses and serious crime
• How are crime statistics socially constructed?


  Statistics appear to be facts when they aren't

  Statistics are not fully replicable

  Crimes are socially defined

  Crimes are legalised as society changes

  Not reliable or valid
• What can affect crime statistics?


  Unreported crime = too trivial, private matter which is resolved, inconvenient to report, common occurring of offences

  fear of reprisals, fear of police and previous bad experiences

  Reported but unrecorded = too trivial, resolved already, victim doesn't want to pursue, victim may be unreliable to take their account and may interpret the law which isn't regarded as an offence
• What can change reporting and recording of crime?

  • mass media
  • changing police attitudes
  • report less serious crimes
  • changing norms and values
  • community policing
  • changing counting rules
  • better police training and equipment
  • changes in law
  • easier communication
  • more to loose
• What are the limitations of victim surveys?


  People may exaggerate or lie

  People may forget they were victimised

  People may not realise they were victims or if it was a criminal act

  Don’t include all crimes

  May not be representative

  Victims may be embarrassed or feel guilty and not be honest due

  Consensual or victimless crimes are unlikely to be reported
• Why are the limitations of self-report studies?


  They may not be valid

  They rely on memory

  Lack of representativeness

  May ignore respondents own definitions of crime
• What is the functionalist view of crime statistics?


  Accepted as accurate and representative for establishing a basis for trends in crime and for forming hypothesis and building incomes
• What is interactionist view of crime statistics?


  Statistics are social constructions and reveal stereotypes, labelling and assumptions, but statistics fuel these and generate a self-fulfilling prophecy of a “typical offender”
• What is Marxist view of crime statistics?


  Provide a biased view of crime as they undersrepresent crime of the powerful and give the impression that criminals are the WC
• What is the Feminist view of crime statistics?


  They underrepresent the extent of female crimes and crimes by men against women
• What is the left realist view of crime statistics?


  They are broadly correct through under representation of white collar and corporate crime and exaggerate the extent of wc crime
• What does the PRC say about the trends in crime?

  Crime peaked in the 1990s but has been around 38% in the last 10 years due to the introduction of Crime Recording Standard (2002/3)