Official Crime Statistics Essay

What be the main(prenominal) strengths and weaknesses of official hatred statistics and dupeization surveys? In this essay I will be discussing the main strengths and weaknesses of official abhorrence statistics and victimization surveys. I pitch done tremendous research to choke up my work, I ease up in any case used famous criminologists and some former(a)(a) bodies who understand criminalization to help re-enforce my points. Most experts and successful authors, such as Tim Newburn, Brent E. Turvey and Clive Coleman brook attempted, through their literature to show how criminal offence has evolved and how surveys wee-wee influenced the publics views about it. The basic ever demesneal wickedness statistics were published in France, 1827. Adolphe Quetelet, a scholar and previous astronomer was the first individual to take a serious approach and interest in criminal statistics. He then went on to become a lede body in criminology and social sciences for his work. Off icial abomination statistics atomic number 18 position under the ideology of offense footsteps in the UK and Wales. Numbers that the BCS, constabulary and other law aboding bodies can gather together from the public, their research and other sources to help give the most high-fidelity rate of aversion they can. victimisation surveys are in the main random samples of the population asked whether they have been a victim to crime in spite of appearance a specific period of time. The reasons wherefore these twain varied types of surveys must be taken are so that crime statistics can attempt to be more solid, although the contention is al courses do that there will never be an accurate percent succession of crime and I will also be touching on why this statement has and always will be made. plague statistics and Victimisation surveys are polls taken and received by victims of crime or the criminals and individuals who pay them. There has been often controversy amongst c rime statistics of how accurate and precise they authentic all in ally are. I will be discussing these issues, but general riveting my main points onto the strengths and weaknesses of official crimes statistics and victimisation surveys. Without crime statistics there would be no go aboutning grounds on the numbers of crimes averagely committed, by what sex and by what age group. However, without victimization surveys crimes may stay hidden crimes such as internal violence, burglary and intimidation.Why I mention these three in particular are because statistics show that most common repeat victims of crime are within these types of offences. Other offences also include other household theft and vandalism. unity example of a top victimization survey is the British Crime Survey. The British Crime Survey or BCS for short is a nationwide represented survey with a successful sample of approximately 47,000 adults sustentation in private households in England and wales every year . The BCS started its surveys in 1981 and it became a fluent survey database until 2001/2002. This survey is a facial expression to face interview where the respondents or victims are asked about their experiences and feelings of crime that may have happened to them or people they know in the last 12 months, the BCS also ask them about their opinions of crime and crime related topics such as anti-social behaviour. These types of people would also be asked about the effectiveness of the constabulary and how they dole out with these issues of crime.The British crime survey is a very important backbone piece of information and source of data on the background of respondents and the overall circumstances of victimization. A public, accurate crime statistic is most commonly the police, a more community based, less national and less accurate interlingual rendition as its range of scope does non cover the nation however both sources limit themselves to a set of offences. Making it ea sier to net income a more accurate percentage. sensation main difference amidst the BCS and the police is that the BCS excludes victimless crimes, drug dealing and murder. The reason for this is the victims are no long-lasting available to discuss the dismantlets that happened. Other crimes they exclude are sexual offences this is generally due to the small number reported and the unwillingness of respondents to come forward. some other main difference amidst the two is that BCS thefts including personal property and other household full points, because with the police they would involve everything included in the theft, jewellery, personal belongings, with the BCS it would all fall into a similar category making it a rugged task to achieve. A weakness of official crime statistics and victimisation surveys is that an argument could be bought up are they actually official? Just because theyre published doesnt make them correct. What about the crimes that arent reported, Becau se of victims be afraid, fright or not having trust in the police. These flushts being called Hidden Crimes or as they are often referred to Dark Figures. In addition to this, recent day statistics are now more enclosed, for example in Tim Newburns Criminology he discusses how crimes such as violence against the person accounts to events such as murder, assault, however not reckless driving which could be considered to focus in full on physical damage.So as statistics are not as open to as many crimes as they wish, some will drift off through and peradventure go into a much minor category. obviously a disadvantage being that individual may feel omit and reluctant to detail the events. Due to the declining of main volume crimes in the recent years, beliefs about crime are still quite high. A tierce of the population from 2003 still believed that crime was a high rated problem. Advantages of Statistics such as these are that they tend to give the public a clear reason of w hat crime rates are at. This table shows beliefs about crime, public charge that possibly the tabloids could have caused. This is discussed a weakness to crime statistics and the public, in a way the media are creating crimes, feeding on crime fear.As I mentioned earlier Crime statistics are never fully accurate and supply is always an important component part when determining crime. Smaller crimes such as robbery are associated with the Underclass Theory by Charles Murray. These types of offences are more down to the individual sort of than a group. Dr Ziggy MacDonald of the University of Leicester wrote a piece in the Economic Journal about Hidden Crimes, one of the things his research showed was that forecasts of crime trends fail to take proper account of what drives unreported crime. For example, soulfulness who is presently unemployed is 7% less likely to report a burglary than somebody who is currently in work, while someone on a comparatively high income is 8% more lik ely to report a burglary than someone on less than average income He discussed how the decrease in fight could eventually lead to the higher rate of theft from peoples properties, and resulting in victims not reporting it, maybe thinking it wont matter as their income isnt high enough to replace the item anyway. Even though the difference between low income individuals and high income individuals is 1% which from my research closely is around 16% burglaries every year as a crime rate, 1% of those victims with a low income are subjected towards not reporting theft of their possessions. Certain individuals economic location (as shown in from MacDonalds work) can become a huge factor when determining Hidden Crimes.People could feel helpless as income is low, or they may live in a deprived area, with no way of being helped their behaviour could become broken referring to the broken glass scheme a single building could have a shattered window for a period of time and the community ar ound that area may feel unwanted, loss a physical and emotional gap between this community and the open world. Because of this, other buildings may become trashed and broken, people would begin to avoid the area it self, the view of fear within these Hidden Crimes. This adds to the statistics the BCS and the police may not know about, smaller areas may not be expected to have high rates of crime and therefore focus is taken away from them. Bigger areas such as Birmingham would be a prime target for crime, the assumption is made. Another theory could that there could possibly be loss Criminology, Crime due to class divisions within a cabaret or community, or perhaps crimes of the powerful, individuals or groups of people being treated differently in decree, expelled from other physical and emotional contact, leaving them no choice but to turn to crime.Transference, to be precise. In August, 2011 the riots in the United Kingdom gave breach to a huge collaboration of crime sprees. Over 1000 people were arrested, yet possibly over 100,000 protested against this Marxist Criminology from politics, student fees and tax increases. Not every individual was caught, making statistics even scarcer. These significant changes within society set alight events that triggered this. This idea of neo Marxism relating to Dark Figures as not every individual in society has the same equal access as other fortunate people, be it financially, emotionally and they lash out because of it. Yet these crimes arent recorded, they go unremarked and became a damaging part of a society. In relation to this is the go away Realism theory, a social democratic approach to the analysis of crime and the development of effective policies of crime control. At the heart of all of this is a source of suffering for the poor and the vulnerable, this links from the ideology of smaller much petty crimes. Bullying for example which as many of 44% of suicides by children from the ages of 10-14 are pote ntially linked.Data sources of the years have developed and cock-a-hoop onto this topic from the 1900s as society and trends begin to evolve. Children picked on because of their backgrounds or income, yet data sources still have a less accurate number to this topic than any other. Official crime statistics do not generally show crimes committed by corporations, if any results are shown, they arent ever big corporations. An example of corporations is Citibank, high profile data breaches, and even the business Sony. These White Collar Crimes are not easily detected, distinguishing them from victimization surveys. They could be breaches of health and safety laws, not identifiable to the easiest detail. Linking to this could be an idea of a corporations being known as Mavericks people who are the exceptions rather than the rules, so society and governing bodies refuse to believe that they would commit corporate crimes, allowing them to get off easy. Or even reducing the expected costs .One of the biggest corporate crimes was an incident that occurred in 1984 Bhopal. Hundreds of people were killed in a chemic accident, by a company called Union Carbide. They owned a pesticide vegetation which was around 3 miles from Bhopal. The leading director of that company told the BBC that methyl isocyanate fuck up (MIC) had escaped when a valve in the plants underground computer storage tank broke under pressure As laws are different from the USA and India, payments have still not been made to the families, who deserve compensation, an American firm that is above the law and have been forced into no effective action whatsoever.Could this have future affects to India, How people live, fear foreign businesses, Should they have to live in fear. In conclusion to my research and the theories I have mentioned. I believe that crime statistics can define the crime rate in the UK every year, both types of surveys have their weaknesses and strengths, society as a whole helps moul d the body of crime, they can also be the authorized source to provide it, and stop it. My results and research from numerous sources have given over an indication on the levels of crime in the UK.Bibliographyhttp//www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/hosb1011/ http//www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/627523/victim-survey http//www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/crime-justice/crime/victims-of-crime/index.html http//webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110218135832/http//rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/crimeew0809.html http//www.res.org.uk/society/mediabriefings/pdfs/2002/february/macdonald1.pdf http//news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/3/newsid_2698000/2698709.stm http//www.civitas.org.uk/crime/factsheet-YouthOffending.pdf