Ways Of Measuring Crime

Question 1

Which sociological group(s) claim that official crime statistics are valid?

Answer 1

• Positivists
• Functionalists: they believe OCS to be highly accurate; Durkheim utilised them to predict what story of people are more likely to commit suicide. Functionalists accept it’a validly because the working class are more likely to commit crime.

Question 2

Which sociological group(s) claim that official crime statistics lack validity?

Answer 2

• Interactionists: claim that they are social construction - such that it is a utility of attaching criminal labels to a certain individual(s)
• Marxists: claim that official crime statists are created by the ruling class to perpetuate a false image in order to distract the public from thief criminal behaviour.
• Feminists: claim that OFS do not illustrate the true scale of crimes committed against women.

Question 3

Outline 3 Advantages of official statistics as a means of measuring crime and deviance

Answer 3

• Allows researcher to easily identify trends and/patterns such as whether crime rates have increased or decreased in a particular area at a particular time period.
• Highlights offenders, outlined which age groups, ethnicity and sexes are more likely to commit a criminal act.
• Promotes sociological research: OFS’s quantitative nature and how easy they are to access and analyse enables sociological research for beginners

Question 4

Outline 3 dis-advantages of official statistics as a means of measuring crime and deviance

Answer 4

• They are a societal construct