UNDERSTANDING CRIME STATISTICS

• CRIME STATISTICS - SOURCES

  Usually differentiated into:

  Official Statistics - Collated by police about crime has been reported to them. Victimisation Surveys - Crime Surveys for England and Wales (formally British Crime Survey).
• POLAR VIEWS

  Realist view

  • Official record of the state of crime in society.
  • Reflect the extent of crime, patterns and trends of crime.
  • Administration - crime statistics provide the government with ability to develop strategies to manage crime.
  • Research - indicates the condition of society.
• Constructivist Perspective

  • See Cicourel’s (1968) The Social Organisation of Juvenile Justice.
  • Tells us more about how criminal justice agencies carry out their work rather than crime.
  • Argues that the statistics are social constructs.
• OFFICIAL STATISTICS

  Technology and the internet has made sharing of crime data much easier.

  Ministry of Justice, Home Office and Office for National Statistics (amongst others) now produce statistical bulletins on crime.

  Also: Prison population, reoffending statistics, youth justice, local councils etc.
• OFFENCE CATEGORIES

  9 general offence categories:

  1. Theft and handling stolen goods.
  2. Burglary - domestic and ‘other’
  3. Criminal damage - subdivided dwelling, non dwelling but a building or vehicle
  4. Violence against the person - very broad
  5. Sexual offences - very broad
  6. Robbery - more serious than theft or burglary as includes use of force or fear.
  7. Frauds and forgery
  8. Drug offences
  9. Other offences - very broad
• WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR (OR NOT!?) - DECONSTRUCTING OFFICIAL CRIME STATISTICS

  What type of crime is being reported - what is included and excluded

  • e.g Police recorded data not include less serious crime - fox of crime over time; Growth in technology, societal changes
  • Rules on counting and recording classifications
  • Time - increase in property offences because we have more property worth stealing
  • Policing practices - changes? To discretion
• Attrition - crime takes place but criminal justice system process filters the record out i.e. no prosecution, conviction or sentencing. This is known as the ‘justice gap’. Criminal justice agencies can all exercise an element of discretion. The process we go through in deciding wether something is a crime and whether we report it to the police.

  Withdrawing allegations. In some cases an incident can lead to more than one crime being recorded.
• POLICE RECORDED CRIME

  2002 Introduction of National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS)‘Cuffing’ rare, but does occur - see page 124 Case et al. Criminology text book. This is also referred to as the grey figure of crime (Bottomley and peace 1986) Must understand the incident and decide what offence took place. May not accept what us being reported. Need evidence to proceed.
• WHAT CAN WE USE OFFICIAL CRIME STATISTICS FOR:

  • Understanding crime trends
  • Crime mapping - crime ‘hot spots’
  • Evidence based policy
  • Intelligence led policing Power relations - construction of crime
  • Understanding the media and crime
  • Understanding the publics fear of crime

  BUT always remember to be critical!!!
• CRIME SURVEY FOR ENGLAND AND WALES

  • 1982 - 2002 British Crime Survey (BCS)
  • 2002 onwards Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)
  • Uncover the hidden ‘dark’ figure of crime.
  • Provide more detail about crime and support to victims.
  • Asks about victimisation and attitudes towards crime and criminal justice agencies
  • 2001 became continuous annual survey.
  • Sampled by household, size, 35,000 by postcode.
  • 2009 views of children aged 10-15 (with parental consent)
• WHAT DO STATISTICS NOT TELL US?

  • Why the crime happened
  • The impact on the victim or their family
  • Specifics of crime
• DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS - MEASURE THE ‘CENTRE’ OF THE DATA

  • Mean - average of all the points in the data (add them all up and divide by the total number of observations)
  • Median - The middle observation of the data set (put the data in order from smallest to largest, keep the duplicate points, find the middle number. N.B. If there is an even number of observations you take the mean of the two middle values.
  • Mode - the data point that occurs most often (sometimes there will not be a mode)
• DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

  Range - spread of the data (largest data point minus the smallest)Interquartile range - measure of variability (order the data, find the median, find the median of the lower half of the data and the median of the upper half of the data, minus q1 from q3.
• COLLECTING DATA - SAMPLING

  • Random Sampling - everyone in the population has the same chance of getting chosen. Must define population and gain a list - to have a sampling frame.
  • Stratified sampling - As representative as possible. Sampling frame divided into smaller groups eg age, gender, ethnicity and then random selection of participants from these groups.
  • Systematic Sampling - e.g. every 5th person on a lists. Need a sampling frame.
• COLLECTING DATA - SAMPLING

  • Quota sampling - Sample must fit with certain quotas. Out of 90 participants, 30 of the participants must have been a victim of crime.
  • Snowball Sampling - a few participants and then ask them to if they have anyone the researcher can contact or people they recommend. Used when sample might be hard to find.
  • Opportunity Sampling - anyone who is available. Used when sample might be hard to find.
• HYPOTHETICO - DEDUCTIVE MODEL OF SCIENCE (POPPER)

  1. Observation of a problem
  2. Theorisation about the problem
  3. Development of a hypothesis
  4. Testing - research
  5. Reflection on the hypothesis
  6. Support/ challenge/ refine theory
• DEVELOPING RESEARCH QUESTIONS

  • Reading of current research in the area.
  • What are they key words linked to this. This can help with literature searches. Are there any key academics you know of working in this area. Look up their profile page for their publications. Think about how you might do something that is different to these papers. How might your research respond to an area that was not looked at or a question posed by the author/s.
• QUANTITIVE STUDY DESIGN

  Frame work or set of methods used to collect and analyse data:

  • Epistemological position: positivism
  • Defined / specific
  • Generalisable
  • Representative
  • Numerical
  • Research question/s + hypothesis
  • Large sample
  • Closed questions
  • Testing theory