local trends in crime in Britain
This research project attempts to contrast local crime trends with the British Crime Survey (BCS). In addition, it intends to explore how many Isle of Wight residents have been victims of crime and whether they felt satisfied with the police. Furthermore, it intends to measure whether residents of the Isle of Wight view it a safer place to live than mainland Britain.
A semi-structured interview was used for the primary research in order to collect quantitive data. This type of method and data collection seeks to be subjective and scientific.
The Island has a population of approximately 130,000 and the majority live in one of the eight small towns on the Island. Agriculture and horticulture take up 80 % of the land area. The Isle of Wight Crime and Disorder Partnership claim that the Island is a relatively safe place to live. This study seeks investigate this claim by comparing statsical data for the Isle of Wight with the data from Southeast Britain.
Hypothesis: The Isle of Wight is a safer place to live in terms of crime than mainland Britain.
* Aim 1 - To investigate how many Island residents have been victims of crime.
* Aim 2 - To investigate victim's satisfaction of the police.
* Aim 3 - To measure whether the residents of the Isle of Wight view it as a safe place to live.
* Aim 4 - To compare Isle of Wight crime statistics with the statistics for Mainland Britain (South East)
Sociological theories into crime and methods can be divided by the two extremes, the positivistic approach and the subjectivist approach. Positivistic approaches derive from the belief that sociological studies should be scientific, objective and use statistic analysis to explain crime. The subjectivist approach stress that there is no objective world outside the consciousness of people. Gathering statistics never uncovers the reasons people commit crime. This approach tends to favour observational methods. It is worth remembering that most sociological perspectives lie somewhere in between these polar approaches.
There are a number of theories and studies in criminology but due to restrictions, this investigation will look specifically at the perspective of the left realist
In the late 1970's, Taylor Watson and young began to modify the Marxist approach to crime, which is concerned with the political, social and economic conditions in which crime occurs. The result was a new approach to criminology that advocated a change in social conditions. According to Young (1975) the social world is complex and constantly changing. Theories that apply now may be redundant in the future. What works for one type of crime may not work for another. Therefore, a flexible theory is needed to be able to deal with a changing world and the different aspects of crime.
Some sociologists have tried to deny that there has been an increase in crime by pointing to the inaccuracy of the crime figures and the increase in the reporting of crime. Young (1993) argues that the rises have been so great that changes in the recording and reporting of crime cannot account for the increase. In addition, some sociologists have indicated that the chance of becoming a victim of crime is minimal. Lea and Young (1980) agree that while the chances of becoming a victim is relatively small in some areas, for particular groups the risk is high. It is usually the poor, deprived, ethnic minorities or residents of the inner city that are high-risk targets.
The government of the 1980's claimed that there was an irrational fear of crime. Taylor and Lea (1985) suggested that people were justified in their fear, particularly those who were working class and living in urban areas. The local crime surveys of Islington and Merseyside demonstrated that for the majority of people crime was not unusual.
Most crime surveys have focused on inner city areas. However, an example of a rural crime survey was conducted in Aberystwyth, Wales. (Koffman 1996) The data collected from this survey was compared to the British Crime Survey. They found a very different pattern of crime. In particular, there was a reduction in burglaries but higher levels of vandalism and car theft.
McConville and Shepherd (1992) suggested rules, which guide police in making their decisions to pursue a complaint or to arrest someone. A most important one relevant to the results of this investigation is the type of victim. It seems that some victims are more likely to be responded to than others. The higher the victims social standing and the more serious the offence or if the police see the victim as more deserving, the amount of police time increases and the more likely they are to apprehend the perpetrator.
Lea and Young have offered a number of solutions to the reduction of crime. In particular they stress that a radial transformation of society is needed. They see the problems in life experiences by the working class as principally due to inequalities in class. One of the solutions supported by Lea and Young is the return of community policing.
Evidence suggests that public confidence in the police has declined, especially amongst ethnic minorities. Most crimes are solved from the result of information from victims. If trust breaks down, the flow of vital information ceases and the ...
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Lea and Young have offered a number of solutions to the reduction of crime. In particular they stress that a radial transformation of society is needed. They see the problems in life experiences by the working class as principally due to inequalities in class. One of the solutions supported by Lea and Young is the return of community policing.
Evidence suggests that public confidence in the police has declined, especially amongst ethnic minorities. Most crimes are solved from the result of information from victims. If trust breaks down, the flow of vital information ceases and the level of solved crimes diminishes. This adds to the lack of confidence and trust in the police. Victims no longer see the point in volunteering information. Therefore, the police have to resort to military policing and this alienates the public even further creating a vicious circle. The return of community policing would encourage the public to stop seeing the police as the enemy. Trust would be built leading to crime being reported on a regular basis. In addition, vital information would again be volunteered and result in more crimes being solved.
Finally, Lea and Young point out that no matter how much police reform is advocated, no progress can be made without a long-term change in society.
Methodology
This study used a combination of both primary and secondary research. The primary research comprised of a semi-structured interview that intended to measure the attitudes to crime and to ascertain whether participants were satisfied with policing policies. The questions were fixed choice questions.
This research method was used, as firstly, it is relatively cheap. Secondly, it maintains the anonymity of the participants and therefore lies within the British ethical guidelines. Thirdly, this method has the advantage of having the interviewer present to clarify any ambiguous questions but with little personal involvement. Fourthly, it can collect large amounts of data in a short period of time. Fifthly, the data collected is easily quantified using a Likert scale. It easily analysed scientifically and objectively. Finally, as a large sample can be used it is justifiable to generalise to the population as a whole.
The limitations of this method include interviewer bias. This indicates that the measurements may not be reliable and therefore it may affect the validity of the results.
In addition, participants may inadvertently be subject to social desirability. Respondents may be unwilling or be unable to give an accurate reply. Respondents may simply lie because it is not politically correct at the time. Furthermore, respondents may be hampered with a faulty memory. For example, victims of crime may be unaware they were a victim or they may have simply forgotten.
A combination of snowball and opportunity samples was used. The participants were chosen from students and staff at the Isle of Wight College. Counterbalancing was used in that equal numbers of male and female participants were asked to complete the questionnaire.
Due to limited resources, time restrictions and lack of sociological expertise the following sampling methods were rejected.
* Random sampling and systematic sampling - the latter involves choosing, for example, every third participant. The former is equivalent to picking names out of a hat.
* Stratified random sampling - involves the researcher dividing the sample into groups according to age, gender or class. This ensures the sample is representative and the researcher can control important variables.
* Quota sampling - allows the researcher to categorise the participants with particular characteristics so that the overall sample is representative of the population as a whole.
* Multi-stage sampling - involves selecting a sample from another sample.
* Non-representative sampling - This means the experimenter tries to disprove the hypothesis by looking for untypical examples of a phenomenon. Participants would be selected for their untypical behaviour.
The secondary research sources involved in this study include:
* Statistics taken from the British Crime Survey for south east Britain
* Statistics taken from the Isle of Wight crime and disorder partnership web site.
* Sociological theories from Haralambos and Sociology in Action.
Qualitative research methods were only rejected after careful consideration. Structured, un-structured and informal interviews were considered, as the data produced would have more validity. However, interviews are subject to some of the same limitation as the questionnaire. For example, Laurie Taylor (1984) interviewed professional criminals about their involvement in crime. Some of the criminals later admitted to telling lies or creating imaginary stories in order to see how gullible Taylor was. This of course affected the validity of the results.
The quantitative primary and secondary research data is presented in graphical form. This type of methodology was chosen as the data both reliable and allows for subsequent re-analysis. In addition, it was felt that to measure attitudes towards crime and compare the Isle of Wight statistics with the rest of Britain straightforward descriptive data was required.
Presentation and Discussion
The following results have been collected from both primary and secondary sources. The data has been divided into four sections. Each section represents the aims of the investigation. The results of the primary research have been compiled into graphical data that shows the results as percentages. The questionnaire comprised of 10 questions that aimed to ascertain how many respondents have been victims of crime and whether the victims reported the crime. In addition, the questionnaire aimed to determine if residents felt the Isle of Wight was a safer place to live than mainland Britain.
The Primary Research Results Are As Follows:
Aim 1 - To identify how many Island residents have been victims of crime.
The results of figure1 indicate that 65% of respondent had been a victim. Furthermore, 45% indicated that nothing came of the reported crime. During the administration of the questionnaires the interviewer noted that this was due to a variety of reasons. Some respondents felt the police could not gather enough evidence to lead to an arrest. Others reported that they felt the police did not view the crime as serious enough to warrant an investigation. This may be an indication of the Vicious circle as described by Lea and Young. Perhaps the public's confidence in the police has led difficulties for the police in gathering enough information to be able to solve a crime.
Aim 2 - To investigate victim's satisfaction of the police
Figure 2
The respondents were asked how satisfied they were with how the police dealt with their complaint?
The results of figure 2 demonstrate that 45% of victims were dissatisfied with how the police dealt with their complaints. The interviewer noted that most people thought the police could have been more vigilant in carrying out the investigation. In addition, the 20% of respondents that were satisfied with the police were so because the police apprehended the criminal and gathered enough evidence to lead to a conviction. Again this is evidence that trust and confidence in the police has declined. Distrust of the police leads to under reporting and this in turn fuels the fear of crime as nothing seems to get done about it
.
Aim 3 - To measure whether the residents of the Isle of Wight view it as a safe place to live.
Figure 3
The respondents were asked how worried they felt about being a victim of crime?
The results point out that majority of respondent's felt that did not need to worry about being a victim of crime and they felt confident going out alone at night. Only 25% of respondents said they were concerned about becoming a victim, but only 15% said they were anxious about going out at night alone. The interviewer noted that of those that felt vulnerable going out alone at night lived in one of the eight towns on the Island. Generally, those that were unconcerned lived in one of the Island more rural areas. This corresponds to Lea and Taylor's suggestion that fear of crime is higher for urban dwellers.
Figure 4
The respondents were asked if they felt that the Isle of Wight was safer than Mainland Britain in relation to crime? The results of figure 4 illustrate that a majority of 65% of respondent felt the Island was much safer than mainland Britain. However, some of the respondents felt it varied according to the area. 25% said it was only a little safer. They felt that rural communities were overall much safer than inner cities on the mainland. 15% said there was no difference in the safety on the Island compared to mainland Britain. It is again worth noting that of these 15% 12% lived in some of the Islands "crime black spots." Finally, 75% of participant's thought the main causes of disorder in their areas was teenagers hanging around the streets and vandalism. This partially confirms the findings of the rural study conducted in Aberystwyth, Wales. (Koffman 1996) It was found that main concerns about crime included vandalism.
The Secondary Research Results Are As Follows:
Aim 4 - To Compare Isle Of Wight Crime Statistics With The Statistics For Mainland Britain (South East)
Table1 shows a comparison of inner city crime with rural crime. People in inner cities are more likely to be a victim of crime. Those living in such areas also worry more about all types of crime. Concern about crime is linked to peoples beliefs about their chance of being a victim and how vulnerable they feel. Fear of crime can have implications on the quality of people's lives. Eight per cent of BCS respondents indicated that the fear of crime had a substantial effect on the quality of their lives; half said it had little or no effect.
As the Isle of Wight is predominantly rural, the findings in the primary research indicate that the above secondary research has strong validity and reliability.
Table 2 Table 2 shows the crime statistics for the Isle of Wight and Table3 the statistics for the south east of England. Both sets of figures are in percentages. The figures show that Isle of Wight crime is only 1.2% of the whole of the southeast. In addition, the figures indicate that the total amount of crime for the Isle of Wight is 5.8% of the total for the whole of Hampshire. These percentages imply that the Isle of Wight has a relatively low crime rate compared to Hampshire and the south east of England.
To conclude, the primary and secondary research results suggest that the Isle of Wight is a safer place to live than mainland Britain. However, the results indicate this may be due to the island being a predominantly rural community. It appears that people who live in the inner city are more concerned about being a victim of crime. This is a justifiable fear as the statistics show that they are at increased risk of being a victim.
Evaluation
The Validity and reliability of The BCS has to be questioned as the total number of crimes reported to the police provides the information. It does not take into account those crimes that are not reported or corporeal crimes. For example, some victims of domestic violence or sexual assault may be embarrassed to report the crime. Therefore, we cannot be sure of the real extent of crime.
The victim studies confirm the BCS is unreliable. The 1997 found that only 44% of crime was reported. Only 26% of vandalism was reported. The results of the primary research showed face validity as they corresponded with the secondary results especially in relation to the fear of crime in rural areas. However, the primary research in this investigation may have been subject to some of the same problems. Asking victims about crime is very emotive. The presence of the interviewer may have affected the result. For example respondents are more likely to conceal crimes because of embarrassment or misplaced guilt. Care must be taken and only face validity can be accepted.
The questionnaire in this investigation consisted of closed questions even though the interviewer was present to clarify any points and note other responses. To reassess the validity it is recommended that respondents be re-interviewed qualitatively. In addition, the sample of respondents can be said to be not representative of the Island residents. A recommended improvement is to increase the sample size and categorise the respondents according to the area they live, their class and their gender. This would increase the reliability of the results.
As peoples perceptions to crime changes over time a further recommendation would to re-interview participants after a period of time.
To conclude, this investigation adopted a positivist approach with the use of quantitative data. Positivistic approaches derive from the belief that sociological studies should be scientific, objective and use statistic analysis to explain crime. However, subjectivist stress that there is no objective world outside the consciousness of people. Gathering statistics never uncovers the reasons people commit crime.
Table1 shows a comparison of inner city crime with rural crime. People in inner cities are more likely to be a victim of crime. Those living in such areas also worry more about all types of crime. Concern about crime is linked to peoples beliefs about their chance of being a victim and how vulnerable they feel. Fear of crime can have implications on the quality of people's lives. Eight per cent of BCS respondents indicated that the fear of crime had a substantial effect on the quality of their lives; half said it had little or no effect.
As the Isle of Wight is predominantly rural, the findings in the primary research indicate that the above secondary research has strong validity and reliability.
Table 2
Table 2 shows the crime statistics for the Isle of Wight and Table3 the statistics for the south east of England. Both sets of figures are in percentages. The figures show that Isle of Wight crime is only 1.2% of the whole of the southeast. In addition, the figures indicate that the total amount of crime for the Isle of Wight is 5.8% of the total for the whole of Hampshire. These percentages imply that the Isle of Wight has a relatively low crime rate compared to Hampshire and the south east of England.
To conclude, the primary and secondary research results suggest that the Isle of Wight is a safer place to live than mainland Britain. However, the results indicate this may be due to the island being a predominantly rural community. It appears that people who live in the inner city are more concerned about being a victim of crime. This is a justifiable fear as the statistics show that they are at increased risk of being a victim.
Evaluation
The Validity and reliability of The BCS has to be questioned as the total number of crimes reported to the police provides the information. It does not take into account those crimes that are not reported or corporeal crimes. For example, some victims of domestic violence or sexual assault may be embarrassed to report the crime. Therefore, we cannot be sure of the real extent of crime.
The victim studies confirm the BCS is unreliable. The 1997 found that only 44% of crime was reported. Only 26% of vandalism was reported. The results of the primary research showed face validity as they corresponded with the secondary results especially in relation to the fear of crime in rural areas. However, the primary research in this investigation may have been subject to some of the same problems. Asking victims about crime is very emotive. The presence of the interviewer may have affected the result. For example respondents are more likely to conceal crimes because of embarrassment or misplaced guilt. Care must be taken and only face validity can be accepted.
The questionnaire in this investigation consisted of closed questions even though the interviewer was present to clarify any points and note other responses. To reassess the validity it is recommended that respondents be re-interviewed qualitatively. In addition, the sample of respondents can be said to be not representative of the Island residents. A recommended improvement is to increase the sample size and categorise the respondents according to the area they live, their class and their gender. This would increase the reliability of the results.
As peoples perceptions to crime changes over time a further recommendation would to re-interview participants after a period of time.
To conclude, this investigation adopted a positivist approach with the use of quantitative data. Positivistic approaches derive from the belief that sociological studies should be scientific, objective and use statistic analysis to explain crime. However, subjectivist stress that there is no objective world outside the consciousness of people. Gathering statistics never uncovers the reasons people commit crime.