It may be that the crime was of a personal nature such as domestic abuse, sexual assault or rape. There are other reasons that these types of crime may not be reported. Often the victim feels that they would be made to feel that they were in the wrong. A women who was raped may be accused by either the police or society of being dressed provocatively and therefor deserved or asked for it. It is not right but it does happen.
Many crimes are not reported because the victims feel that the police would not be interested or not able to do anything about it. A good example of this is where a group of children hang around a street corner drinking smoking and being noisy. If the police are contacted they will just be moved on only to return when the area is clear of the officers. It may be that after several calls to the same area the police do not respond. This is one of the reasons that the neighbourhood watch was founded. As a way for communities to police any minor incidents as above and to improve communication among residents in order to help to profile any suspicious activities. There are other reasons that crimes are not reported such as no loss by the victim.
Another form of crime, which is often not reported, is corporate crime. Though in actual fact the amounts involved are often higher than the total of a most common burglaries. The crimes may not be reported to prevent a negative image of the company and a scaring of potential investors. For these reasons it is often very difficult to prosecute in these cases. ‘In 1990 Ernest Saunders (ex-chairman of Guinness) was found guilty of theft (one theft amounted to £2.6m, a second to £5.2m) false accounting and conspiracy.’ (The Sociology of Crime and Deviance: Interpreting the figures.)
There are also reasons that the police do not report crimes. A policeman may not report that he has moved a person on for breach of peace if he is called to another crime. He may see it as unnecessary due to it being a minor offence.
Another form of crime that is not represented within official figures is crime that has not been detected. It is very hard to say to what extent this affects the figures, as it is impossible to say how many crimes have been committed without detection. An undetected crime in an extreme case may be that a missing person report would remain as such until a body is recovered. The manner of death would need to be suspicious before it may become a murder case. So an undiscovered or undetected crime would be unable to be indicated.
Even when crimes are reported they may not be recorded by the police. It may be that the officer thinks that the crime is too trivial, they may not accept the complainants account. If there is insufficient evidence for the criminal prosecution service to gain a conviction on a case it may be dropped. An example may be a prostitute who had been raped. These cases would not be recorded. If there is a busy period it may simply be overlooked.
One of the main reasons that the statistics will be inaccurate is that they do not take into account policing itself. We are all familiar within the UK of the pre Christmas drink-drive campaigns that take place. This is known as targeting by the police. So around the Christmas period figures showing drink-driving offences will be high. This does not necessarily indicate that the level of crime has increased. But that the police are targeting that type of crime so more is detected and more prosecutions take place as a result of this. Other types of targeting exist and the list is far from exhaustive. In an area known for drug offences there may be a zero tolerance implicated. This means that the police would concentrate on drug related crimes and so they would show an increase in official figures. It is often targeting of police resources that are used to show biased figures as can be seen with the drink-drive campaign. The higher figures make it look like the police are taking a heavy stance on these crimes. But whilst they are there are other crimes are failing to be detected due to the allocation of officers and would therefor show a decline. They are still being committed but not detected.
The figures do not fully represent the community either. There would appear to be less crime committed in rural locations. One could ask is this because less crime is being committed or is it because there are fewer police resources, criminals and potential victims in these areas? The crime figures would show by area not by nation and so are inaccurate of the whole picture.
There are other factors to consider such as the representation within the figures themselves. The Home Office figures from 1999 show that between 1998 and 1999 there was a 6% drop in violent crimes. This breaks down to a 9.9%decrease of violence against the person, a 2.2% increase in sexual offences and a 5.6% increase in robbery. So from this it fair to say that there was an overall decrease in violent crime. To do this would be correct but should it be scrutinised further it is clear that the reduction was only in one area of that type of crime. There may be reasons for that decline which would invalidate it. There may have been less cases of violence against a person reported due to a lack of confidence in the police or the idea that it can be resolved without their involvement. The figure for robbery may have increased because there was a police targeting campaign against those offences. The sexual offences may have increased as suggested by the police because they are making more efforts to gain women’s confidences. So it would not indicate that the crime was being committed more just that it is being reported more.
So as we can see though I have not used a complete list of reasons. Those mentioned clearly indicate that the figures will be inaccurate.