4.4.1

Measuring Crime

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Official Crime Statistics

Crime in measured through official crime statistics, victim surveys, and self-report studies.

Official crime statistics

Official crime statistics

  • Crime statistics are collected by the police and published by the government four times a year.
  • They depict patterns and trends.
  • They are quantitative data.
  • They are secondary sources.
Reasons for sociological use

Reasons for sociological use

  • They are a secondary source of data which means that they are cheap and easily available, i.e. save time.
  • Patterns and trends can be easily identified.
  • They cover large number of people, areas, etc.
  • When they are combined with self-report studies and victim surveys they can almost cover every crime committed.
Problems with official statistics on crime

Problems with official statistics on crime

  • Crimes can go undetected if they are not reported to the police because they are considered trivial.
  • Crimes can go unreported as the victim might be embarrassed or because they are afraid of the consequences, or the crime may be seen as a sensitive/personal matter or petty.
  • Crimes can go unrecorded as even if the crime is reported, the police might think it’s trivial, or that not enough evidence was presented.
Evaluating official statistics of crime

Evaluating official statistics of crime

  • All in all, official statistics ignore the dark figure of crime, i.e. the number of crimes that have been committed but haven’t been reported and recorded by the police.
Iceberg

Iceberg

  • Official statistics are compared to an iceberg:
    • Only a small fraction of total crime is reported to the police (the visible tip of the iceberg)
    • The real number is far greater (this is hidden below the water but is still there.)

Victim Surveys

Crime in measured through official crime statistics, victim surveys, and self-report studies.

Victim surveys

Victim surveys

  • Victim surveys are surveys where people are interviewed about the crimes that have been committed against them over a specific period, usually over the last year.
UK victim surveys

UK victim surveys

  • This survey is conducted with 50,000 people.
  • It has been happening since 1981 by the government.
  • E.g. British Crime Survey (BCS), now called Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).
  • It includes crimes that aren’t reported to the police and helps make up for the dark figure of crime.
Strengths

Strengths

  • They uncover the dark figure of crime, i.e. crimes that haven’t been recorded by the police.
  • It gives a more accurate number of the crimes committed as it includes the ones that haven’t been reported.
Weaknesses

Weaknesses

  • People still may not disclose crimes because they are either embarrassed or they aren’t aware they have been the victim of a crime.
  • It doesn’t include every type of crime, e.g. victimless crimes.
  • Victims’ memories may be blurred making them inaccurate and invalid.

Self-Report Studies

Crime in measured through official crime statistics, victim surveys, and self-report studies.

Self-report studies

Self-report studies

  • They ask people to reveal crimes they have committed and their frequency.
  • They have a list of deviant and criminal acts where the respondent needs to tick the box.
  • They are anonymous.
  • They are an alternative to official statistics, ensuring that all crime is recorded and contributing to reveal hidden crime.
Strengths

Strengths

  • They contribute towards revealing victimless crimes, e.g. drug use.
  • They might uncover the hidden figure of crime.
  • It reveals information about the perpetrators, e.g. age, gender, social class.
Weaknesses

Weaknesses

  • People may not tell the truth or exaggerate.
  • Most of the crimes that are uncovered tend to be petty as people don’t want to admit to committing any serious ones.
  • They don’t necessarily reveal the true level and extent of crime as the surveys are conducted mainly with young offenders and not the professional criminals such as drug traffickers.
Jump to other topics
1

The Sociological Approach

1.1

Introduction to Sociology

1.1.1What is Sociology?1.1.2Culture & Socialisation
1.2

Sociological Approaches

1.2.1Marxism1.2.2Marxism 21.2.3Functionalism1.2.4Feminism
1.3

The Consensus vs. Conflict Debate

1.3.1The Consensus vs. Conflict Debate1.3.2End of Topic Test - The Sociological Approach
2

Families

2.1

Functions of Families

2.1.1Functionalist Views on Family2.1.2Marxist Views on Family2.1.3Feminist Views on Family
2.2

Family Forms

2.2.1What is a Family?2.2.2Nuclear Family2.2.3Families in a Global Context2.2.4The Rapoports & Family Diversity2.2.5Causes of Family Diversity2.2.6End of Topic Test - Family Forms
2.3

Conjugal Role Relationships

2.3.1Conjugal Roles
2.4

Changing Relationships Within Families

2.4.1Timeline2.4.2Domestic Abuse2.4.3Symmetrical Family
2.5

Criticisms of Families

2.5.1Functionalist Views of Families2.5.2Marxist Views of Families2.5.3Feminist Views of Families2.5.4Declining Marriage Rate2.5.5End of Topic Test - Criticisms of Families
2.6

Divorce

2.6.1Reasons For Rise in Divorce Rate2.6.2Consequences of Divorce2.6.3Functionalist Views2.6.4Marxist Views2.6.5Feminist Views2.6.6End of Topic Test - Divorce
3

Education

3.1

Roles & Functions of Education

3.1.1The Functionalist Approach3.1.2Evaluating Different Perspectives3.1.3Types of School3.1.4Alternative Education3.1.5State & Private Schools
3.2

Processes Within Schools

3.2.1Internal Processes3.2.2External Processes
3.3

Educational Achievement

3.3.1Measuring Educational Success3.3.2Social Class & Education3.3.3Social Class & External Factors3.3.4Gender & Education3.3.5Ethnicity & Education3.3.6Parental Choice3.3.7History of UK Education Policy3.3.8Recent UK Education Policy3.3.9End of Topic Test - Education
4

Crime & Deviance

4.1

The Social Construction of Crime

4.1.1Defining Crime & Deviance4.1.2Sociological Explanations of Crime4.1.3Interactionist Explanations of Crime4.1.4Alternative Explanations of Crime
4.2

Social Control

4.2.1Informal Social Control4.2.2Formal Social Control4.2.3End of Topic Test - Social Construction of Crime
4.3

Criminal & Deviant Behaviour

4.3.1Explanations of Crime4.3.2Social Class & Crime4.3.3Gender & Crime4.3.4Ethnicity & Crime4.3.5Age & Crime4.3.6Criminal Responsibility4.3.7The Prison System4.3.8Media Reporting of Crime4.3.9Functionalist Explanations of Crime
4.4

Data on Crime

4.4.1Measuring Crime4.4.2End of Topic Test - Criminal & Deviant Behaviour
5

Social Stratification

5.1

Social Stratification

5.1.1What is Social Stratification?5.1.2Functionalism5.1.3Socio-Economic Class5.1.4Socio-Economic Class 25.1.5Life Chances5.1.6The Affluent Worker5.1.7End of Topic Test - Social Stratifictaion
5.2

Poverty as a Social Issue

5.2.1Defining Poverty5.2.2Factors Affecting Poverty5.2.3Explanations of Poverty5.2.4Impact of Globalisation5.2.5End of Topic Test - Poverty as a Social Issue
5.3

Power & Authority

5.3.1Weber5.3.2Sociological Perspectives5.3.3Power Relationships5.3.4End of Topic Test - Power & Authority
6

Sociological Research Methods

6.1

Research Methods

6.1.1Research Design6.1.2The Scientific Method6.1.3Other Considerations6.1.4Primary Sources6.1.5Secondary Sources6.1.6Surveys6.1.7Sampling6.1.8Questionnaires6.1.9Interviews6.1.10Observation6.1.11Statistics6.1.12Case Studies6.1.13Longitudinal Studies6.1.14Ethnography6.1.15Experiments6.1.16Small Scale Research6.1.17End of Topic Test - Research Methods

Practice questions on Measuring Crime

Can you answer these? Test yourself with free interactive practice on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.

  1. 1
    Methods of measuring crime:Fill in the list
  2. 2
    Official crime statistics:True / false
  3. 3
    UK victim surveys:True / false
  4. 4
    Strengths of victim surveys: Fill in the list
  5. 5
    Self-report studies:Fill in the list
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Functionalist Explanations of Crime

End of Topic Test - Criminal & Deviant Behaviour