crime

• what are police recorded statistics?

  -stats drawn from records & other official agencies

  -published every 6 months by Home Office

  -collected since 1857

  -historical overview of changing trends
• strengths of police recorded stats?

  -excellent view of how CJS processes offenders

  -allows trends to be found
• weaknesses of police recorded stats?


  -not all crimes are reported (inaccurate)

  -socially constructed so still carry bias
• what are victim studies?

  surveys asking a sample of ppl whether they have been a victim of crime
• strengths of victim studies?

  -overcomes the fact that a significant portion of crimes are never recorded by police

  -allows trends to be seen
• weaknesses of victim studies?

  -ppl may not be truthful if they fear backlash from reporting

  -victim's memories may be faulty

  -categorisation of crimes depends on person filing it
• what are self report studies?


  surveys that ask ppl if they have committed crimes (sometimes issued by gov.)
• strengths of self report studies?

  -useful in revealing the sort of ppl who commit crime

  -help to overcome dark figure of crime
• weaknesses of self report studies?

  -rely on truthfulness of respondents

  -> criminals unlikely to tell on themselves
• what makes people less likely to report crime? (CSEW 2011/12)

  -if crime is trivial

  -if crime is a private matter

  -shame (eg. in rape)

  -inability (eg. children who are being abused)

  -fear of backlash
• what makes people more likely to report a crime? (CSEW 2011/12)

  -benefits (eg. insurance claim)

  -faith in police
• what did Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary find in 2014?

  almost 1 in 5 crimes reported to police that should have been recorded by them were not included in official stats
• what is the dark figure?

  the total number of unrecorded crimes

  -> can only be estimated
• what are the consequences of the dark figure?


  -victim surveys (eg CSEW) give different stats to police-recorded crime

  -although general trends are similar, no. of violent crimes (police-recorded) have increased recently, but declined according to CSEW
• what does Newburn (2013) suggest about the contrast in findings of violent crime?


  it is indicative of improved police recording; they are finding more cases of violent crime than victim surveys and not ignoring them
• why is there a difference in figures from the police and the CSEW?

  -police filtering info supplied to them by the public according to the factors that are important to them:

  ->seriousness (is crime trivial? eg littering

  ->classifying (how they categorise the crime)

  ->social status (may not view status of victim as high enough to pursue their case)

  ->discretion (chances of arrest lie within demeanour of person being challenged by an officer)-->Anderson et al. youths who cooperate & are polite to officers less likely to be arrested
• how do british courts work?

  on the assumption that many will plead guilty (and 75% of those charged actually do)

  -> due to unspoken agreement that pleading guilty will result in lightest punishment (plea-bargaining)
• what happens as a result of plea bargaining?

  -the pleas are sometimes for less serious crimes than the ones that were actually commited

  -> stats reflect this downgrading of seriousness
• why do govs sometimes change laws over time?


  what is considered to be a crime changes over time, so govs change the law to reflect shifting cultural attitudes
• what happens as a result of govs changing laws & definitions of crime?


  any rise or fall in the levels of crime may reflect changes in the law as much as actual change in crime
• examples of what the gov has criminalised/decriminalised over time

  -XL bullies

  -same-sex marriage

  -abortion

  -marital rape

  -legislation changes during COVID 19 pandemic