Crime Statistics Lecture PDF

Measuring Crime Outline 1. Explanation of Criminal Statistics 2. Criminal Statistics as a Social Construct 3. Alternative ways of calculating crime a) Victim surveys b) Self-reporting studies 4. Fear of Crime What does it all mean? What are criminal statistics? Data collected about cr...

Measuring Crime Outline 1. Explanation of Criminal Statistics 2. Criminal Statistics as a Social Construct 3. Alternative ways of calculating crime a) Victim surveys b) Self-reporting studies 4. Fear of Crime What does it all mean? What are criminal statistics? Data collected about crime: - incidents - type of crimes - who is committing the crimes  Why are crime statistics useful? - Can act as a ‘barometer’ - Can indicate police performance - Can indicate whether the government is doing enough to ‘keep us safe’ - Basis for planning and spending - Historical record How statistics might be used? - Research and comparative studies https://youtu.be/ZJNESMhIxQ0 - Potential to target how, where, or why crime is occurring in order to prevent it  Questions statistics seek to answer How much crime is being committed? What crimes are being committed? Is crime on the increase, decrease, or same level? How many people are committing crimes? How many people are victims of crimes? How serious are the offences being committed?  Official ways of recording crime Constructing - Police recorded crime figures Criminal - Crime Survey of England and Wales Statistics Key sources of knowledge - Local report studies - Self report studies - Victim surveys What is Required? - Reliability of the data produced - Awareness of the limitations and methods - Alternative ways of measuring crime  Police Crime Recording How does an event become a statistic? Recognised Recognition Recorded and Reported to by police as a by victim or compiled into police recordable witness statistics crime What are the problems, issues and difficulties with police crime reporting?  Issues in crime Dark figure of crime = the gap between the crime recording: that is actually committed and that which enters Victims/witnesses the official crime statistics. Recognition by victim or witness what if no individual victim?  what if victim doesn’t recognize that a crime is being committed? Reported to police  victims may fear reprisals  victims may not believe that their complaint will be treated justly  victims may be embarrassed or may be hiding their own criminal activity Issues in police Grey area of crime = gap between what is reported to crime recording: the police and what is actually recorded by the police Police Influenced by Home Office Directions Only require to pass on ‘notable offences’ Since 1999 this has meant all indictable offences, may either-way and some magistrates’ court offences -Influenced by practices within police forces  Too minor to record  deal with it informally  ‘cuffing’ – either not recording a reported crime or downgrading it to one that doesn’t have to be recorded  Reports are time consuming  Since 1992 statistics have been used as indicators of police performance Willingness of victim to give evidence in court  Crime statistics are a social construct: Do the Statistics Contain the Whole Story? Social construct = an idea that has been created and accepted by the people in a society Criminal statistics - reflect the attitudes of society in what should be criminalized (and what should be counted) - Involve not only offenders’ behaviour but reporting behaviour and behaviour of police  Crime statistics do not capture all crime The Crime Survey for England and Wales suggests that the true level of crime is almost twice the ONS Police Crime Rate Estimated that only 32% of crime that occurs are reported and recorded ◦ Undiscovered Crime – not recognised ◦ Unreported Crime – never identified as such ◦ Unrecorded Crime – police discretion or counting rules Reasons for a Rise in Crime More state action: as policing and technology gets better more crimes are detected.  This gives an impression of increasing levels of crime More laws: more crimes on the statute book (traffic offences, financial fraud, computer related crimes, etc) More reporting: People are more sensitive to reporting physical and sexual violence to the police  This can also be an indicator that there is greater trust in the criminal justice system More victims: As opportunities have risen, so have crimes.  Criminal Characteristics What do statistics tell us? They show that people who commit crimes are Beware! Correlation does not mainly: equal causation. - Male - Are crimes committed by white people - Working-class or women reported as often? - Young, 14-24 years old - What about corporate/’white collar’ crimes? - Disproportionately black - What else is not reported that would - In addition, they are likely to have a poor affect these trends? educational record, health problems, and come from a broken home or from care homes. Alternative ways of counting crime: victim studies Surveys of people who are asked to report all cases where they have been a victim of crime recently. Examples: Islington Crime Survey (1986 and 1995) or national like the CSEW (annually). Give a clearer idea of the extent of crime, who is likely to be a victim and people’s fears about crime. Highlight the risk of repeat victimisation of victims  Weaknesses of victim studies Relying on memory is an issue because recollections may be incorrect or biased Sometimes people put crimes into the wrong categories Surveys exclude white-collar crimes such as fraud and corporate crimes  creates ‘invisible crimes’ People will not report ‘victimless’ crimes such as drug taking or prostitution There is an under-reporting of personal attack, domestic violence and sexual crimes, despite anonymity. (NB: the media sensitising issues can encourage people to report).  Alternative ways of counting crime: self-report studies Ask people to honestly confess to crimes they committed over a period of time Important way of getting better picture of some crimes like drug use Farrington & Dowds – Leicestershire and Staffordshire (a) a much greater number and proportion of recorded crimes originating directly from offenders’ admissions to the police. (b) a greater number and proportion of recorded crimes involving property of little value. Higher reports of women committing crime? Anne Campbell gave a self-report study to young females and found they had almost as high a crime rate as young males However, Steven Box argued that if petty crime was removed then the male-female ratio was closer to the official one: 9:1. Weaknesses of Self-Report Studies Steven Box (1971 and 1986) argues self-report studies suffer from issues of validity, representativeness and relevance:  ‘Validity’: are they true to life? Respondents can forget, play-down or exaggerate the extent of criminal activity they have been involved in.  ‘Representativeness’. Since most self-report studies are on young people, they rarely include professional or managerial adults.  ‘Relevance': most crimes reported are trivial  Fear of Crime Age: Not only do elderly people fear crime but both males and females under 16 also report high levels of fear Gender: Women are almost 3 times as likely to fear physical attack than men Ethnicity: People from minority ethnic backgrounds fear crime more than the majority white population Fear of Crime Finding by the Islington Crime Survey (1995) is that there is a real fear of crime amongst the public - enough to affect their lives The group most likely to be a victim of violence is young males. In 88% of cases they know their attacker. Often fear of crime drives criminal justice policy - Particular controls on anti-social behaviour Recent Issues 2010/11 Violent crime recording is flawed in Crime Knife crime was 20% higher than recorded Statistics  GBH that fails because offender was stopped in time has been recorded as assault ONS is starting to increase coverage in counting child abuse and cybercrime. Covering non-physical domestic abuse Trying to include severity as a measure in police reported criminal statistics  Conclusion To know the reliability of criminal statistics (and what they are measuring), ask the following: ◦ Who is being asked to provide information? Police, victims, self-reporting, etc ◦ What kinds of crime is being counted? ◦ Where in the criminal process is it being counted? ◦ At reporting, during investigation, after conviction? ◦ What is left out (not counted)? What is included?