Crime Statistics

Question 1

Influence of Media on crime stats

Answer 1

Tabloids focus on crime, making people more alert/anxious - on the lookout and more likely to see/report crime

Question 2

Impact of Police attitudes & training on crime stats

Answer 2

• Training changed to include DV, child abuse, and hate crimes
• Increased in stats, but likely that they’re reported more often

Question 3

Impact of Increased Reporting on crime stats

Answer 3

Most see police as ‘service’ rather than ‘force’ - report minor complains like noise/vandalism more often

Question 4

Impact of Changing norms on crime stats

Answer 4

Society changed due to protest movements - increases reporting of crimes against these groups (eg. MeToo, BLM)

Question 5

Impact of Changing Police Numbers on crime stats

Answer 5

• Reduced under cons., increased under labour
• Fewer police = less reporting
• More police = more reporting

Question 6

Impact of Better Equipment on crime stats

Answer 6

• Police get new tech (eg. body cams) = reporting rises
• Better detection, not crimes increasing

Question 7

Impact of Changes in Law on crime stats

Answer 7

• Illegalisation = increase in numbers
• Legalisation = decrease in numbers
• In both cases, behaviour itself is unchanged

Question 8

Victims Surveys

Answer 8

Help to find ‘real’ burden of crime by getting crimes that aren’t reported or recorded

Question 9

Issues with Victim Surveys

Answer 9

• Victims can exaggerate for sympathy/attention
• Forgetting/poor recall of minor crimes
• Unawareness of white collar crime
• Not all respons (mostly educated MC)
• Underreporting extreme/’embarrasing’ crime
• ‘Victimless’ (minor) crimes rarely reported

Question 10

Self-Report Studies

Answer 10

Asking people about crime directly means we can get crimes no officially recorded or not effectively reported

Question 11

Issues with Self-Report Studies

Answer 11

• Social desireability bias
• False reports to help/exaggerate findings
• Responses can change when being given to a stranger
• Issues with memory
• Representativeness

Question 12

Functionalist view

Answer 12

• Believe in social facts, fixed consensus, social structures
• Happy to trust/use official stats
• Trust police statistics - pillar of society

Question 13

RR/NR view

Answer 13

• Believe structures can change but criminals are always bad people
• Happy to use statistical methods - want to update them as society changes
• eg. Body cams over surveys - can’t trust police

Question 14

Interactionist view

Answer 14

• Stats are useless - C&D are social constructs that can’t be measured with objective or quantitative techniques
• Only accept stats which help understand stereotypes - eg. police arrests by race

Question 15

Trad. Marxist view

Answer 15

• Stats are gathered by those in power and used to benefit them - biased
• Useful to understand oppression and inequality but can’t be taken at face value - eg. infection rate data to criminalise Sarah Everard vigil but not BLM protests

Question 16

Feminist view

Answer 16

• Don’t trust stats - don’t get good coverage of common crimes by/against women
• These issues are often embarrassing or emotionally difficult to report in surveys

Question 17

LR view

Answer 17

• Statistics useful to see general trands and gauge public opinion
• Miss key disadvantaged groups like ethnic minorities and lower SES communities
• eg. Language too complex, or mistrust of authorities

Question 18

Patterns of Offending

Answer 18

• Data allows us to see who is most often recorded as having committed crimes
• Certain demographics and areas where crime is recorded are much more frequently seen than others
• WC males, Urban areas, Young people (Male peak at 18, Female peak at 14), Against property (70-80%)

Question 19

Recent crime statistics

Answer 19

• Telephone operated survey for England & Wales - 11.5M offences
• Total police recorded crime in England & Wales - 5.8M offences
• Recent increases in homicide figures due to domestic terrorism and human trafficking