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Unlock This CourseCrime statistics are numbers that tell us how much crime is happening in society. In the UK, these figures come mainly from police records and the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). But these statistics aren't perfect - in fact, they can be quite misleading! This session explores why crime data might not show the full picture of crime in society.
Key Definitions:
One of the biggest problems with crime statistics is that they don't capture all the crimes that actually happen. This missing data is called the 'dark figure of crime'.
Many crimes never make it into official statistics because victims don't report them to the police. Reasons include:
Even when victims report crimes, police might not record them in official statistics because:
Different social groups may have different experiences with crime reporting and recording:
Middle-class people may be more likely to report crimes like burglary (for insurance claims). Working-class communities might have less trust in police and report fewer crimes.
Women are less likely to report sexual offences due to shame, fear of not being believed, or concern about how they'll be treated in the justice system.
Young people may not report crimes committed against them by peers. Elderly people might fear appearing vulnerable if they report being victims.
Crime statistics can change dramatically without any real change in criminal behaviour. This happens because of:
In 2014, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary found that police in England and Wales were failing to record about 800,000 crimes reported to them each year – nearly 20% of all crimes! This included serious offences like sexual crimes and violent attacks. The report called this "indefensible" and showed how official statistics can significantly undercount actual crime. After changes to recording practices, violent crime figures appeared to rise sharply, but this was largely due to better recording rather than an actual increase in violence.
Because of the problems with official statistics, sociologists use other methods to get a more accurate picture of crime:
The Crime Survey for England and Wales interviews about 50,000 people annually about their experiences of crime, whether reported to police or not. Benefits include:
Limitations include:
Researchers ask people (often anonymously) about crimes they've committed. Benefits include:
Limitations include:
Sociologists from different theoretical backgrounds interpret problems with crime statistics in different ways:
Sees crime statistics as generally useful despite flaws. They believe statistics help society identify problems and allocate resources appropriately.
Argues statistics reflect power imbalances. Working-class crimes are over-represented while corporate and white-collar crimes are under-recorded.
Focuses on how crimes get labelled and recorded based on interactions between police and public. Some groups are more likely to be criminalised than others.
The problems with crime statistics matter because:
In recent years, UK media has focused heavily on knife crime, particularly in London. Official statistics showed increases, but experts debated whether this reflected a real rise in knife crime or changes in recording practices and police focus. Hospital admission data for knife injuries provided an alternative measure, showing smaller increases than police data. This demonstrates how different statistical sources can tell different stories about the same crime problem.