Intro

• 1.Official crime statistics – those crimes recorded in official police files.2
• .Victim studies – such as the Crime Survey for England and Wales, where a sample of people are surveyed about how many crimes they have been the victim of.
• 3.Self-report studies – surveys which ask people to anonymously report crimes they have committed.
• Dark Figure Of Crime

  Unreported Crime
• Under Reporting Of Crime

  44% of crime victims felt the incident was not sufficiently serious to report.
• 33% claimed the police would be unsuccessful in solving the crime, so felt it was not worth reporting it.
• 22% did not report the crime as they felt the police would not be interested.
• underreporting

  Some crimes are not reported because of the humiliation felt by the victim such as rape or domestic violence.
• Corporate and white-collar crime is extremely difficult to detect and thus report.
• Under- Recording

  ‘Social status’ of the victim: important people tend to get a more favoured response than the poor, down and outs and homeless.
• Under- Recording

  Seriousness: the offence may be regarded as too trivial.
• Police As Filters

  Discretion: each police officer has the discretion to press charges or let the individual off – even if they are known to be ‘guilty’.Promotion and relations at work: Police officers have to tread a tightrope between trying to impress senior officers and not appearing too keen (as this makes more work for their colleagues).