Official Crime Statistics Introduction to Criminology Learning Objectives

Official Crime Statistics Introduction to Criminology

Learning Objectives �Identifying the different ways of measuring the rate of crime �Explaining some of the difficulties in measuring crime �What are the advantages/disadvantages of using official statistics to measure crime?

What are the 3 different ways to build up a picture of crime? � Official crime statistics � Victim surveys � Self report studies

Official statistics �They are gathered from the records kept by the police �They are published by the Home Office annually �Key word : OFFICIAL STATISTICS �The way crime is officially measured based on statistics collected by the Home Office

Official statistics �Look at the chart �What does it say about the crime rates in West Midlands compared to the national average? (Blue bar is West Midlands/ Red bar is National region) �http: //www. westyorkshire. police. uk/ help-advice/crime-mapping

Official statistics �Advantages �Provide a cheap and easily available resources �They can show change over time �They can contain a large amount of information �The data can be combined with the results from other methods such as victim surveys and self report studies to estimate the ‘real’ rate of crime. � Disadvantages �Statistics need to be treated with caution. Some crime may not be reported to the police so the crime statistics are not truly valid

Why are not all crimes recorded? �Detection �Reporting �Victims may fear the consequences from the criminals �Victims may fear the police �Crime may be considered to private e. g. domestic violence, family dispute �Victim may not havered suffered any loss �Crime may be considered too petty �May be too sensitive e. g. rape �Crime in workplace may not be reported, company rather dismiss the person rather than involve the police

� Recorded � 40% of the offences reported to the police are actually recorded �The reported crime may seen as too trivial �The reported crime was not actually a crime �The complainant may decide not to proceed with the claim �The police may decide that there is not enough evidence of an offence having been committed to justify a criminal investigation

Dark figure of crime �http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=jzd. Ti. M 5 w. S_c

Homework � Learn the key terms from the hand-out for next lesson