Do official statistics include all crimes?

• Although statistics are a good way to measure crime rates, they need to be treated with caution.
• Not all crime is included in official statistics because of:

  • detection
  • reporting
  • recording
• Detection: Not all crime gets detected, if a crime is observed and gets identified as a crime the police might be informed but they won’t always be informed. If a crime isn’t observed or identified then it won’t be reported to the police which means that it wouldn’t be included in the official statistics as the police doesn’t know anything about the crime.
• Reporting: lots of crimes are not reported to the police and there are a lot of reasons as to why they might not be reported to the police.
• Not all crimes are reported because:

  • The victim might fear what the criminal is going to do to them if they report the crime
  • The victim might not trust the police or they might not believe that the police will do anything about it
  • The crime might not be thought to be important enough
  • The crime might be considered too private
  • The victim might find it too embarrassing or it may be a very sensitive crime such as rape
  • Crime in the workplace might not be recorded as the company might want to dismiss/fire the person instead of involving the police
• Recording: The police decide whether the crimes that are reported to them get recorded. Only around 40% of offences that are reported to the police are recorded. Some crimes as not recorded because of the:

  • Reported crime might be seen as not having enough importance
  • The reported crime might not actually be a crime
  • The victim might choose not to continue with the complaint
  • The police might decide that there isn’t enough evidence for the offence that is committed
• Official statistics do not give an accurate picture of crime and ignore the dark figure (the unknown amount of criminal activity that is not reported or recorded to the police).