Official Crime Statistics Essay

What atomic number 18 the main strengths and weaknesses of official abuse statistics and development lots? In this essay I testament be discussing the main strengths and weaknesses of official offensive statistics and dupeization surveys. I baffle done tremendous research to back up my work, I have similarly used famous criminologists and different(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 have attempted, through and through their literature to show how horror has evolved and how surveys have influenced the publics views almost it. The first of all time national curse statistics were published in France, 1827. Adolphe Quetelet, a scholar and previous uranologist was the first exclusive to take a serious approach and interest in criminal statistics. He then went on to become a leading body in criminology and social sciences for his work. Official discourtesy statistics are placed under the ideology of umbrage rates in the UK and Wales. Numbers that the BCS, police and different law aboding bodies can gather together from the public, their research and other sources to help give the most faithful rate of crime they can.Victimisation surveys are generally random samples of the population asked whether they have been a victim to crime within a specific period of time. The reasons why these two different types of surveys must be taken are so that crime statistics can attempt to be more solid, although the argument is eternally made that there will never be an accurate percentage of crime and I will likewise be touching on why this statement has and unendingly will be made. abhorrence statistics and Victimisation surveys are polls taken and received by victims of crime or the criminals and individuals who commit them. in that respect has been much controversy amongst crime statistics of how accurate and precise they rea lly are. I will be discussing these issues, barely overall focusing my main points onto the strengths and weaknesses of official crimes statistics and victimisation surveys. Without crime statistics there would be no rump grounds on the numbers of crimes averagely committed, by what sex and by what age group. However, without victimization surveys crimes may stop hidden crimes such as domestic violence, burglary and intimidation.Why I mention these three in picky 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. One character of a top victimization survey is the British Crime Survey. The British Crime Survey or BCS for short is a nationally stand for survey with a successful sample of approximately 47,000 adults living in private households in England and wales all(prenominal) year. The BCS started its surveys in 1981 and it became a fluent survey selective informationbase until 2001/2002. This survey is a show to face interview where the respondents or victims are asked about their experiences and feelings of crime that may have happened to them or population they cheat 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 police and how they deal with these issues of crime.The British crime survey is a very important key 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 companionship based, less national and less accurate version as its range of stage setting does non cover the nation however both sources limit themselves to a set of offences. Making it easier to see a more accurate percentage. One main unlikeness between the BCS and the p olice is that the BCS excludes victimless crimes, drug dealing and murder. The reason for this is the victims are no longer available to discuss the events that happened. Other crimes they exclude are cozy offences this is generally due to the small number reported and the unwillingness of respondents to come forward.Another main difference between the two is that BCS thefts including personal fitty and other household items, 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 make it a difficult delegate to achieve. A weakness of official crime statistics and victimisation surveys is that an argument could be bought up are they truly official? Just because theyre published doesnt make them correct. What about the crimes that arent reported, Because of victims being afraid, intimidate or not having trust in the police. These events being called private Crimes or as they are lots referred to Dark Figures. In addition to this, modern 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 fully on physical damage.So as statistics are not as open to as many crimes as they wish, some will slip through and possibly go into a much minor category. Obviously a disadvantage being that individual may feel neglected and reluctant to detail the events. Due to the declining of main volume crimes in the new-made years, beliefs about crime are still quite graduate(prenominal). A third 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 give notice understanding of what crime rates are at. This table shows beliefs about crime, public fear that possibly the tabloid s 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 power is always an important factor when determining crime. Smaller crimes such as robbery are associated with the Underclass possibility by Charles Murray. These types of offences are more down to the individual rather 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, someone who is currently unemployed is 7% less likely to report a burglary than someone who is currently in work, while someone on a relatively high income is 8% more likely to report a burglary than someone on less than average income He discussed how the descend in employment could even tually 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 economical status (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 disadvantaged area, with no way of being helped their behaviour could become broken referring to the broken glass surmisal a single building could have a shattered window for a period of time and the community around that area may feel unwanted, leaving a physical and emotional gap between this community and the open wo rld. Because of this, other buildings may become trashed and broken, people would begin to avoid the area it self, the thinking 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 expect to have high rates of crime and therefore focus is taken by 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 Marxist Criminology, Crime due to class divisions within a conjunction or community, or perhaps crimes of the powerful, individuals or groups of people being treated differently in society, 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 Criminolog y 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 report 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 unnoticed and became a damaging part of a society. In relation to this is the Left Realism theory, a social antiauthoritarian 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 potentially linked.Data sources of the years have developed and grown onto this topic from the 19 00s 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 disposal 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 chemical accident, by a club called Union Carbide. They owned a pesticide plant which was around 3 miles from Bhopal. The leading director of that company told the BBC that methyl isocyanate gas (MIC) had escaped when a valve in the plants underground storage cooler 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 juristic 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 honk the body of crime, they can also be the reliable source to provide it, and stop it. My results and research from many s ources have given 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