2.1 defining crime and deviance

• self report studies

  often focus on smaller crime and young

  mostly quantitative

  often longitudinal

  smal crime ignored by CSEW
• police recorded crime stats

  43 territorial police forces in England and wales

  all crime from England and wales

  + longitudinal

  -not representative

  -changing laws
• Victim surveys


  crime survey for England and wales

  • face to face structured interviews annually
  • compare to official crime stats
  • robust data collection
  • high response rate
• 2.1 how is crime relative

  changes over time - homosexuality, law changes

  changes in different cultures - women drivers

  changes in location - doing 30 in a 20
• 2.1 crime can be measured by police stats


  police upload crimes that have been reported to them to the ONS

  +

  • easy to access
  • free
  • compare over time
  • not based on estimates

  -

  • doesn't show dark figure
  • police may be bias/racist
  • can choose to upload or not
• 2.1 crime can be measured by victim surveys


  government pays people to go into random selected peoples homes and ask if they've been a victim of crime in the last year - CSEW

  +

  • uncovers dark figure
  • asks children
  • in home so likely to tell truth

  
  

  -

  • not all crime uncovered
  • based on estimates
• dark figure of crime

  all unrecorded crimes come under this
• victim survey


  people are asked about there experiences of being a victim

  CSEW

  • face to face structured interviews
  • anually
  • used to compare official crime stats and shed light on dark figure
  • robust data collection through interviews
  • response rate is relatively high and can come from a representative sample of the UK

  +

  • generalisable and representative
  • shows hidden crime
  • closed questions - qualitative data
  • reliable as structured

  -

  • time consuming and expensive
  • victimless crimes
  • interviewer bias
  • people don't always know they are victims
• self report studies


  when you ask someone about the crime they have committed themselves - stays private unless crime is severe

  • focus on smaller crimes and used on young people
  • picks up crimes that don't make it on the PRCS and CSEW
  • often longitudinal - criminal career

  +

  • unreliable - hard to repeat
  • invalid - people can lie about the crimes they commit
  • not generalisable - only apply to those studied
  • not representative - can't apply to other regions