Problems with defining

• Defining crime is problematic as it is a social construct and therefore heavily reliant on the context in which it is set. Simply put, crime is seen as an act against the community, which requires a legal punishment.
• Historical context is an important consideration. A good example of this is homosexuality which was deemed illegal in the earl 20th century. However is was legalised in 1967. For example Allan Turing the famous computer scientist in the 2nd world war was arrested and had to either go to prison or take part in hormonal therapy.
• Cultural context is also needed to be considered. For example in the UK, female genital mutilation is illegal but considered acceptable in other cultures. In addition homosexuality is still illegal in 74 countries and 13 of those are punishable by death. This highlights the cultural relativism which needs to be considered when defining crime.
• Age is another issue which affects the definition of crime. The age at which an individual can be legally responsible is debated. In the UK the age of criminal responsibility is 10. An example of this is Robert Thompson and Jon Venables who killed a 3 year old when they were 10. The event caused an outcry but also raised the question of whether they were responsible.
• Specific circumstances are also considered. Like if a man sped to take his son to the hospital.
• Ways of measuring crime

  Official statistics, victim surveys, offender surveys
• Official statistics is conducted by the Office for national statistics and hold info on current crime surveys on varying areas of interest. Some areas include criminal damage, property crime, drug crime and sexual crime.
• Victim surveys are used to gather information about the impact of crime on victims. The largest victim survey carried out in the UK is the crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). It is a face to face survey which collects data from 50,000 households selected at random who have experienced crime. They are asked their attitudes in crime and the police as well as to help identify groups at risk
• Offender surveys are designed to take info from offenders (often in prison) in order to understand the behaviour and attitudes of offedners. the Offending Crime and Justice Survey (OCJS) was a longitudinal study carried out between 2003 to 2006. They identified specific trends in anti-social behaviour that peak in 14-16 year olds and the relationship between drugs and alcohol. The data helps researchers to identify potential risk factors and prevention.
• Official statistics are considered fairly limited as they are easily skewed by data which is omitted such as unreported crime and categories of crime which do not necessarily get brought up in a simple survey or questionnaire. This is why victim and offender surveys are considered useful as they can give more accurate details about crimes which may not get reported in the official statistics.
• As with any survey, there is an issue of honesty in those being questioned. Since the CSEW claims that 4 in 10 crimes don’t get reported, what is to stop those 6 in 10 not reporting crimes holding back in an interview? The CSEW argue that their data is invaluable for this reason as it gives people the opportunity to talk honestly without fear of repercussions. However, critics may argue that there could still be a reluctance to put forward fully their experiences or attitudes, particularly if complete honesty would implicate the victim in criminal activity as well.
• Another issue with surveys is that the company conducting the research may be given a random pool of participants to approach, but it is up to them whether or not they take part. On the CSEW website, they note that they must rely on the “goodwill” of individuals to agree to be a part of the research. This is a problem if many people decide that they don’t wish to, resulting in a diminished sample size.
• Offender surveys are likely to be limited by the honesty of their respondents, perhaps even more so than victim surveys. However, there is debate over this as some argue that an offender may be more likely to be honest in order to use the information to their advantage, while others suggest that they will be reluctant to give up information that implicates another perso