Defining and Measuring Crime

Question 1

What is a key problem in defining crime?

Answer 1

The legalistic definition of crime is complicated by the concept that laws change over time, this also varies from culture to culture

Question 2

What is the cultural issue in defining crime?

Answer 2

What we consider a crime in one country may not be in another country e.g. in UK bigamy is illegal - this not a crime in cultures where polygamy is practiced

Question 3

What are the historical issues in defining crime?

Answer 3

Homosexuality was a crime until 1967 and still is illegal in some Asian and African countries

Question 4

What two other factors are important to consider when defining crime?

Answer 4

Age - a toddler stealing sweets off shelf not same as teenage shop lifting
Specific circumstances - many would argue a mother stealing milk for her baby is not a criminal

Question 5

What are the ways of measuring crime?

Answer 5

Official statistics, victim surveys and offender surveys

Question 6

What are official statistics

Answer 6

Based on crimes that are reported to the police and recorder in official figures. Published on an annual basis by the home office

Question 7

What do official statistics allow the government to do?

Answer 7

Develop crime prevention strategies

Question 8

What is the dark figure of crime?

Answer 8

Term used by criminologists to describe unreported and undiscovered crime - official statistic don’t represent this

Question 9

What else affects official statistics?

Answer 9

Police recording rules

Question 10

What are the reasons why crime is not reported?

Answer 10

There is no victim 
Victim is scared
Crime is too trivial 
Mistrust police
Perpetrator is friend/family

Question 11

What are the reasons why crime is not recorded?

Answer 11

Insufficient time 
Crime too trivial 
Not a priority 
Victim withdraws a charge 
Lack of evidence 
Police recording rules

Question 12

How are victim surveys collected?

Answer 12

British Crime Survey carries out every two years which involves interview with a large sample - participants asked whether they or a member of their household has been a victim of crime in the last year
interviews are heavily structured

Question 13

How many take part in victim surveys and what has this enabled the Office of National statistic to produce?

Answer 13

50,000 households randomly selected to take part in the survey -
Produce crime figures based on victim surveys

Question 14

What happened with victim surveys in 2009?

Answer 14

Separate survey was produced to record those aged 10-15 and their experiences of crime

Question 15

What did the 2006/2007 surveys show?

Answer 15

That victim reports were greater than police recorder crime

Question 16

What are offender surveys/ offender self-report?

Answer 16

They ask people about their offending behaviour e.g. the Offending Crime and Justice Survey

Question 17

What is the process of an offender survey?

Answer 17

Young people in England and Wales interviewed about their attitudes towards and experience of offending - responses are gathered using a computer

Question 18

What type of survey is offender?

Answer 18

National, random selection, longitudinal survey - focused on 10-25 year olds with the same people re-interviewed each year

Question 19

In 2006 what was revealed on offender surveys?

Answer 19

Much crime is alcohol related

Common offences among male binge drinkers were violent crime and theft

Question 20

What do offender surveys look at?

Answer 20

Trends, indicators of repeat offending, drug and alcohol use, the role of co-offenders and the relationship between perpetrators and victims