Transcript Crime Statistics

Their Strengths and Limitations
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Practically – available for free
More detail as there are more categories
of crime than with the British Crime
Survey
Includes crimes committed against
under 16s
Easy to make comparisons
Enables us to assess the efficiency of the
police
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Theft of vehicle – high reporting rate
Assault with minor or no injury – low
reporting rate
Vandalism – very low reporting rate
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Downgrading crimes – from ‘attempted
burglary’ to ‘criminal damage’
Disappearing crimes – from ‘theft’ to ‘lost
property’ – the later is not a crime
NB – The Police are now less able to do this
since the introduction of the National Crime
Recording Standards in 2002
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Reveals the extent of the dark figure of crime
for each type of crime.
Asks questions about perceptions of crime and
fear of crime
It provides a picture of the extent and patterns
of victimization, i.e, we can find out about the
ethnicity and gender of the victims of crime.
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It asks about a much more limited range of
crimes than Police Recorded Crime – people
are not asked if they have been victims of
Health and Safety breaches by Corporations
for example.
It is a survey of private individuals – crimes
against corporate organisations such as
businesses (theft from work for example) are
not included.
It omits certain sections of the population – the
under 16s and homeless people are excluded
for example.
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The BCS interviews one person to talk about the
experience of the household…. and the person
interviewed may not know whether other members of
the household have been victims of crime.
There are various reasons why the respondent may not
tell the respondent about a crime or crimes
experienced….
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–domestic violence if the abuser is present,
‘fatigue’ – the person may have experienced so much crime
they are unwilling
Interview conditions will affect the reporting rate –
matching interviews according to gender, ethnicity and
age should enhance trust and increase the reporting
rate.
Complete the self report questionnaire
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See separate document…
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Researchers are able to ask about a wider range
of offences than either the BCS or Police
recorded crime
Useful for asking about ‘non criminal’ but antisocial behaviour type offences
Useful for finding out about younger offenders
– missing from the British Crime Survey
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Obviously there will be pressure for the
respondents to be dishonest
Especially not useful for more serious offences
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Authorities are increasingly looking to other
sources of information to collect valid data on
the level of offending
For example - using Accident and Emergency
figures to collect statistics on ‘more serious
wounding’ for example