Defining And Measuring Crime

Question 1

Official statistics

Answer 1

Government records of the total number of crimes reported and recorded by the police.
Published by the home office annually

Question 2

Victim surveys

Answer 2

Record people’s experience of crime over a specific period.

E.g. The Crime Survey for England and Wales - people document crimes they’ve been a victim of in the past year. 50,000 households randomly selected to take part.

Question 3

The Crime Survey for England and Wales

Answer 3

Asks people to document crimes they’ve been the victim of in the past year.
50,000 households randomly allocated to take part.
Produced Crime figures based on victim surveys since 1982.

Question 4

Offender surveys

Answer 4

Involve individuals volunteering details of the number and types of Crime they have committed.
Target groups of likely offenders based on risk factors.
The Offender Crime and Justice Survey (2003-2006) was the first national self-report Survey of its kind in England and Wales.

Question 5

The Offender Crime and Justice Survey

Answer 5

Ran from 2003-2006.
First self-report Survey of its kind in England and Wales.
Looked at indicators of repeat offending, trends in the prevalence of offending, drug/alcohol use, role of co-offenders and the relationship between perpetrators and victims.

Question 6

Farrington and Dowds (1985)

Answer 6

Police in Nottinghamshire were more likely than other regions to record thefts of under £10.
This explained and apparent ‘spike’ of thefts in the area.

Question 7

Cultural issues in defining crime

Answer 7

What is considered a crime in one culture may not be as such in another.

Question 8

Historical issues in defining crime

Answer 8

Definitions of crime change over time e.g. hitting a child was legal until 2004.