How Accurate are Official Crime Statistics?

“serious” enough to record.  Another type of crime which falls into this category is domestic violence, many crimes aren’t recorded, due to the fact some police forces find it pointless as 1/3 domestic violence cases (man against a woman) are not fully pursued, either through fear or because the couple resolve the issue etc.  This means that we do not see a true figure of crimes, which the police are faced with, only the ones, which they pursue further.    Many people believe also that whether or not a crime is recorded is based on the person reporting the crime, if a person appears to be an upstanding member of the community, who has no prior convictions, police are more likely to make record of what he or she says than if someone who is a known criminal reports a crime, and seems nervous, or not entirely sure of what has happened in the incident they are reporting.  It is also suggested that police will record more crimes at points of the year when they are not so busy, however at times that crimes rates are high, less “trivial” crimes will be recorded, this is because it frees up officers for more “important” duties, and saves the police force extra work on things they don’t see as worthwhile, furthermore officers will record crimes more, or more high profile crimes, if they are looking to boost their own career, they may record more `straightforward` crimes, so that they can solve more cases, and benefit from a promotion.  Some crimes are recorded, but due to work loads of officers may later be removed from records and classified as “non-crimes” in order to decrease heavy work schedules.  A second problem with official crime statistics is that many crimes go unreported, particularly domestic violence and sexual abuse; this is due to the fact that the crimes are seen as `taboo` and carry labels of “shame” and in some communities these issues are seen as “part of life”, in the past for example many people simply accepted domestic violence as a common part of marriage, and something that could be resolved by the couple themselves.  When the man is the victim of domestic violence too, or a child is being abused, the crimes often go unreported, due to the shame of telling, and fear of not being believed.  Also minor crimes, n which the victim feels that due to the fact the police will not pursue the case, or they do not want the hassle of making a statement, the crime for example vandalism to a fence is seen as too minor and so people deal with the situation themselves.  Gang crimes often go unreported due to the fact that they tend to “sort things” themselves, taking the law into their own hands, rather than seek retribution from the state, they go out and seek it directly from the perpetrator themselves, often reciprocating with a similar act of violence, which they had previously been a victim of, e.g.- you hurt my friend, I hurt you, this is because they see the method as more effective and brings with it a higher status than reporting the crime to the authorities does.  Other reasons for not reporting the police include, being scared of the person who carried out the crime, a drug dealer beating up a drug addict who has not paid him would be an example of this, the crime may be reported to other authorities, like the council, medical boards etc. or it is thought that many people do not report crimes, due to anti-police feelings.  Studies have indicated that particularly in Liverpool people lack confidence in the police and legal services, this was shown in a study that looked at jury systems, in the study it was seen that people were much more likely to be found not guilty when put on trial in Liverpool by a liverpudlian jury than they were if they were tried in Warrington or Manchester. British crime survey figures suggest that official crime statistics only represent about 30% of actual crimes committed, the other 70% is labelled as “The hidden figure of crime”. The implication of this fact is that an increase in recorded crime, may not depict an accurate increase in the number of crimes occurring, however one must ask, if official crime statistics are not a true representation of crime levels, what is? Is there an accurate way of measuring crime levels?  There are two other methods that may be used as an alternative to official crime statistics; firstly self-report studies, these are like a questionnaire, which are given to individuals, who tick next to the crimes they have committed. . These however were criticised because they lack validity, generally they were only issued to young people, particularly young, males, who generally tend to exaggerate their actions, to build street cred and look “cool” and “tough” or who lie and do not admit to crimes, for fear of being caught. Also they are criticised due to the triviality of crimes asked about, they do not mention more serious crimes.  They are seen as unrepresentative, as there is no way of checking whether the answers given are truthful and again, the studies have only been given to young people, the results may differ from the successfulness the scheme would have if adults were asked to fill one in.  The other alternative to official crime statistics is victim surveys, in these individuals are asked in a way similar to the self report studies to tick next to the crimes they have been a victim of.  The most popular victim survey is the British crime survey, which has been carried out regularly since 1982.  The problem with this method is that relying on victim’s memory can often cause facts to become distorted therefore, statistics become confused.  Also there is a problem in that victims are categorising the crimes themselves, and so it may exaggerate some forms of crime, making them out to be more or less serious.  Studies found too that types of corporate crime tended to be ignored; due to there it is seen as “minor” compared to assault for example.  Sexual crimes also tend not to be reported; due to the stigma’s attached to them.  Young people are too excluded from this survey, and so a large majority of the population is ignored, and this means that victims of on going child abuse cant report being a victim. To conclude, it seems that after looking the evidence, official crime statistics are not an accurate measure of crime, but whatever method of gathering crime statistics is used, all of them have major flaws, however based on the fact that a large majority of the official crime statistics flaws are based on police behaviour, it would seem easiest to improve police techniques and standards when it comes to recording crime, as opposed to bringing in new techniques, simply modify current ones.