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) elp-advice/crime-mapping elp-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

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