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sociology - crime and deviance > Measuring crime > Flashcards

Measuring crime Flashcards

1
Q

What are the 3 main ways of measuring crime ?

A
  • official statistics
  • victimisation
  • Self- report studies
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2
Q

What are official crime statistics ?

A
  • produced by the home office
  • records of police effectiveness and criminal activity
  • They provide info on crimes to the police
  • Give info on criminals social characteristics
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3
Q

What are crime statistics used for ?

A
  • compare previous years
  • reveals police efficiency
  • helps police concentrate resources
  • provides the public with information about criminal activity
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4
Q

What are some advantages of official statistics ?

A
  • up to date
  • cover the whole population
  • ethical
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5
Q

What are some disadvantages of official statistics ?

A
  • doesn’t reflect the whole picture of a crime
  • doesn’t include unreported crime
  • laws change overtime
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6
Q

What are some trends in crime ?

A
  • Between 1876 and 1930, there was very little change
  • Sharp increase between 1960 - 1990
  • Overall, crime seems to be falling now
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7
Q

What are police statistics ?

A
  • based on records kept of crime
    -show crimes reported and crime solved
  • 80% of police action is relied on public reporting
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8
Q

What are unrecorded crimes ?

A
  • not all crimes are recorded
  • ‘dark figure of crime’
  • Paul wiles: 3 things must happen before a crime is reported
  • crime must come to someones attention
  • crime must be reported to the police
  • police must accept that the law has been broken
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9
Q

What does Muncie say about measuring crime ?

A

There are reasons why a crime doesn’t get reported
1.Person doesn’t know they have been a victim
2. No clear victim
3. Considered trivial
4. Powerless victim
5. Distrust of the police
6. Thinks the police won’t take them seriously

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10
Q

What do Kinsey, Lea and Young say about measuring crime ?

A
  • inner-city residents have little faith in the police
  • working class people turn a blind eye
  • fear of reprisal (retaliation) from criminals
  • these are reason for them not to report the crime
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11
Q

What are the 3 manipulation techniques ?

A

Coughing = Offender encouraged to admit to a lesser charge to get a reduced sentence
Cuffing = Crimes which have been reported, and recorded get removed at a later date. Also known as ‘no-criming’
Skewing = Putting resources int the areas with the highest amount of crime or the ones that will make the force look better if they reduce

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12
Q

What did James Patrick say about Measuring crime ?

A
  • said that there was a routine for officers to manipulate crime statistics
  • spent 12 months analysing data from the met and found sexual offences were often ‘no-crimed’ and burglary was often down-graded
    He said this manipulation became ingrained into the police force
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13
Q

What are the 4 main dark figures of crime ?

A
  • within the home
  • white collar crime
  • crimes of the state
  • racial victimisation
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14
Q

What are crimes within the home ?

A
  • feminist researchers
  • e.g domestic violence, abuse of a child, elderly abuse
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15
Q

What is white collar crime ( dark figures of crime)

A
  • crimes are usually undetected or prosecuted
  • rarely defined as a crime
  • all white collar crimes effect us directly and indirectly
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16
Q

What are crimes of the state (dark figures of crime)

A
  • crimes committed by government
  • e.g: massacres, torture, human right infringements
  • acts are rarely seen as criminal because the government create the laws
17
Q

What are racial victimisation crimes ( dark figures of crime)

A
  • around 15% of crime against ethnic minorities are racially motivated
  • estimated that less than half of all racially motivated crimes may be reported to the police
18
Q

What are some issues with the dark figure of crime ?

A
  • police force record different amount of crime
  • police force may categorise crimes differently
  • coughing ( lesser sentence for owning up)
  • cuffing (police not reporting crime they don’t think they can solve)
19
Q

What are the implications of the official crime stats?

A
  • statistics can be considered to be a way that crime is socially constructed
  • they reveal more about the process of reporting crime and collecting
  • interactionalists believe that these statistics just show the labels and stereotypes adopted by the police and courts
20
Q

What are victim surveys ?

A
  • alternative way of measuring crime
  • surveying people about crimes they have been a victim of
  • includes crimes which haven’t been reported by the police
21
Q

What do victim survey’s do ?

A
  • They measure the accuracy of police recorder crime figures
  • The crime survey for England and wales is one of the largest social surveys conducted in Britain
22
Q

What is the CSEW ?

A
  • The crime survey for England and Wales
  • involves face-to-face structured interviews
  • since 1982
  • happens annually
  • kids included from the age of 10 for the first time in 2009
  • sample of 35,000 adults and 3,000 kids
  • 2017 response rate was 73%
  • try to reflect the profile of general population
23
Q

What are the findings of the CSEW ?
And what do they show ?

A
  • much higher than official statistics - up to 4 times more
  • they collect information about victim, circumstances and offender behaviour
  • helps estimate the amount of domestic violence, stalking and sexual victimisation
24
Q

What are some limitations of the CSEW ?

A
  • don’t include victimless crime
  • children victims not included
  • based on victim memory
  • sample may not be representative
  • 25% of data is missed (because only 75% respond to the interview)
25
Q

What was the Islington crime study ?

A
  • conducted in inner city London
  • focus on geographical locations and impact on victim
  • in the first survey, 33% are affected by serious crime
  • Majority thought that crime was a major issue
  • qualitative = found detail, 25% of people avoid the dark
  • shows fear of crime is real and rational
26
Q

What did Young say about victim survey’s ?

A
  • Well trained interviews helped in the Islington study found a higher rate of victims
  • due to not reporting sexual offences
27
Q

What did Dobash and Dobash ?

A
  • researched domestic violence
  • interviewed women at the refuge
  • qualitative research
  • not aiming to compete with official statistics
  • understand impact on victims life
28
Q

What was an evaluative study of victim studies ?

A
  • Coleman and Moynihan
  • the sample may not be representative
  • needs accurate remembering
  • assumes everyone defines crimes the same
29
Q

What are some theories use and opinions on victim survey’s ?

A

Left realists:
Lea - used data from survey’s, thought immediate strategies were needed to reduce crime as the poorest suffered the most from this.

Feminists:
Dobash + Dobash: used victim survey’s to uncover rates of domestic violence. Rates were much higher towards women than stated in the official crime statistics.

30
Q

What are self-report studies ?

A
  • Quantitative data
  • anonymous data where offenders admit crime
  • not considered official data
  • questionnaires
31
Q

What do self-report studies reveal about official statistics ?

A
  • Official statistics say that the male:female crime ratio is 6:1
  • And working class : middle class is 6:1
  • Self-report survey’s reveal its 3:2 in both cases
32
Q

What did Campbell say about self-report studies ?

A
  • conducted self-report studies on mainly young females and some young males
  • Found levels of crime and deviance are much closer than official statistics suggest
  • Also overemphasis working class males involvement in crime
33
Q

What does Farrington say about the Cambridge and Edinburgh studies on self-report studies ?

A

sociology - crime and deviance (22 decks)

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