Measuring Crime Flashcards
(20 cards)
Official Statistics
for comp to discover trends
to look at police efficiency
show where police should concentrate resources to dec crime
provide public info about crime patterns & socios basis to explain crime
to reveal police assumps & stereotyping
Sources of Stats
- police recorded crime (PRC)
- victim Surveys
- Self Report Studies
- Court & Prison Records & Records on Police Causation
Victim Surveys
give m accurate pic than PRC - eg Crime Survey for Eng & Ws (CSEW) - face to face study
Self Report Surveys
anonymous questionaires eg Home Office’s Offending Crime & Justice Survey - annually 2003-6
Court & Prison Records & Records on Police Causation
reveal some of the charas of offenders who are caught
1930-50
Trends in Crime
gradual rise - end of war - soldiers = frustrated - inc standard of living - leads to relative dep
1950-80
Trends in Crime
steeper rise = econ growth & soc anomie - w/ changes in the role of women & wider soc
1980 - mid 1990s
Trends in Crime
rapid inc - econ recession - higher rela dep & unemploy
Mid 1990 - 2016
Trends in Crime
grad annual decline - could be due to changes in reporting - new types of crime not included - cyber crime
The Official Crime Rate
stats collected using police, court & prison recs
British Crime Survey
stats collected through vic surveys & self reports - 50,000 ppl over 16 asked annually if vic of crime
VS - speak to ppl to get stats - m than just PRC
SRS - completed by prisoners in custody
Official Crime Statistics are a Social Construction
dif to measure
= wide agreement w/in a given cul over what = crime
= disagree w/in same cul when it comes to aspects of the term esp periphery issues
crim stats = soc construction -product of soc process
= fund difs between culs w/ what constitutes as a crime
Social Construction of Crime
m approach crime stats w/ caution
are they reliable, how can we be sure they are classified correctly, what happens if m than one crime at same time, what about validity
police officers have some discretion over crime classifi
2014 = calc 1 in 5 crimes rep to police = not recorded
only 27% = detected/cleared up 2014/15
Maguire (2002)
estimates only 3% of all crime ends up w/ conviction
Functionalist View on Statistics
share view of positivists & tend to accept stats uncrit
inspired sub cul theory - started w/ view that crime = young WC & male
accept official stats at face value - see them as reliable & valid
Marxist View on Statistics
recog the systematic bias in fav of powerful in app of law
gen higher in soc system less likely they are to = arrested & convicted
stress sig dark side of white collar & corp cime = invisible & not in stats
show biased view = constructed by RC ignores white collar crime - suggests = WC
Interactionist View on Statistics
sees crime stats as largely useless & distortion of reality
argue stats = soc construc & tell nothing about real level of crime only who compiled them
stats = soc construc & only useful for iden stereos & assumps
labelling
Labelling Theory View on Statistics
interested in questions - why some acts are viewed as m dev than others & why some groups = labelled dev
Left Realist View on Statistics
accept official stats have some values & shouldn’t be rejected
accept view typ offen = young, male WC & dispropor Black
using vic studies show ppl (poor & vul) have real fears of crime
stats = broadly correct but under rep white collar & corp crime exag WC crime participants by ethn min
Feminist View on Statistics
crime stats underplay extent of female vics - personal attack dv
prev police saw home attacks as doms = reluc to get involv
many female vics of physical & sexual attack = reluc to rep
stats underrep female crimes & crimes against women - dv/rape
