Methods: Getting the measure of crime
Student No: 2435448
Methods: Getting the measure of crime
What practical problems does the criminologist face in going about his business?
What does an informed examination of hidden crime tell us about (1) official criminal statistics and (2) The nature of social order?
Are there such things as victimless crimes? Why?
In my essay I will first talk about crime and what it means, I will then talk about what different methods criminologists use to collect crime such as crime surveys and self report studies and there positive and negative sides. I will then go on to talk about victimless crimes.
The definition of crime is something that is punishable by the criminal justice system, and is "An act punishable by law, as being forbidden by statute or injurious to the public welfare... an evil or injurious act, an offence, a sin." (Robert.R 2002)
The Dark figure of crime is the amount of crime which is unreported or unknown The total amount of crime in a community consists of crimes which are known or recorded and the dark figure of crime.
Criminologists have used differing methods (like victimization surveys) to try to decrease the amount of unknown or unrecorded crime.
In many cases, a crime will either be unrecorded or unreported. Such crimes remain anonymous and so would not be counted in statistical data relating to crime. 'The dark figure of crime' is the term used to describe this. Criminologists have attempted to analyse and attempt to assess the size of the so-called dark figure of crime. The only way thus far has been to estimate or guess the figure, but the estimated figures differ between criminologists, although they all agree that much of it goes undetected, many estimate over 50%.(Williams.K,2001)
To increase our knowledge of the dark figure criminologists have developed different types of surveys, these include victim and crime surveys, these are surveys in which are a very important source of information about levels of crime and public attitudes to crime and other Home Office issues. They measure the rates of victimisation by questioning a randomly selected sample of the population about experiences as victims of selected crimes. They are one of the most frequently used and claim to be the most reliable indicators of the true levels of criminality in society. Their results can be used ...
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To increase our knowledge of the dark figure criminologists have developed different types of surveys, these include victim and crime surveys, these are surveys in which are a very important source of information about levels of crime and public attitudes to crime and other Home Office issues. They measure the rates of victimisation by questioning a randomly selected sample of the population about experiences as victims of selected crimes. They are one of the most frequently used and claim to be the most reliable indicators of the true levels of criminality in society. Their results can be used to make a fairly reliable estimate of the extent of those particular crimes in society but can only help estimate the levels of particular crimes and do not record the true level of crime in a particular part. It is also not well placed to measure crimes such as drugs and consensual sexual offences. Positive points about crime surveys is that not only do they count crimes rates, many collect additional information about crime, victims and the police. They record both reported and unreported crimes and can also look at public attitudes to the police and use it in preventing and dealing with crime. (William.K,2001)
Another way of collecting crimes rates is by self report studies, these can be in the form of a questionnaire or interview. Self report studies are mainly used to test hypothesis about the reasons for crime rather then how much is committed. In the questionnaire form people can tick how often or how many times they have committed certain crimes. In the interview form they may be asked questions in greater detail, examples of questions that are asked are peoples class, race, religion, sex and age.
It has been found that self report studies record levels of criminal statistics above the official figure, so may be useful in assessing the dark figure in respect to particular offences.
Although self report studies have positive effects they also raise a number of problems, participants may not be telling the truth and may be putting down what they think people want to hear. Validity may also be a problem, participants may have forgotten crimes they have committed or may not consider them to be crimes. (Williams.K,2001)
There are also Local crime surveys, these are concerned about the tendency of the British crime survey to distort the real experience of crime, especially those of women, children, ethnic minorities and the very poor, writers have designed local surveys. These type of surveys provide more information about specific areas where incidence of crime is higher or lower. (Goetcherian.L,2005)
Ethnography is also another way to find out crime that is going on. The thing that is different with this research method is that the criminologist gets involved. The person or people involved with the research involves themselves with the surroundings make observations, takes field notes, considers the meaning of the findings and then writes up the results. This research method is aimed at researching different cultures and can last many months. (Ethnographic research,30/03/05)
These research methods show us that there is much more crime occurring then the official crime statistics show due to people having different perceptions of the word and not recording it, police also may not record some crimes when they are called out as they may think that the crime that has occurred isn't serious and wouldn't go anywhere and so isn't worth all the paperwork they would have to do.
Victimless crimes are ones which "is an illegal act which doesn't have any direct or identifiable victim". (dictionary.com 30.3.05)
I believe there are such things as victimless crimes which could include the use of illegal drugs e.g Marajuana, under age drinkers, prostitution and abortion, in these cases people are involved in an illegal act but ones which doesn't have a victim although there can be family or other people that suffer but there is no direct victim, someone told me " the only way to save the victim from a victimless crime is to stop making the 'offences' crimes" I believe this can be true in some ways, but I do not believe that this is not the way to solve it, as it would only cause more problems, as people would feel free to do what they like knowing that they will not get punished for it, for example under age drinkers may cause more violence on the streets and in the long term more people becoming alcoholics.
From the bibles perspective, there is no such thing as victimless crime. A violation of Gods law renders the offender guilty before God, no matter how few people are involved.
"John wrote - sin is the transgression of the law and all unrighteousness is sin" (ICR,2005)
Official statistics give us a distorted picture of criminality. The more involved it becomes the less representative it is of the official type.
The least reliable statistics to use for the idea of the size of crime problem, types of crimes committed or types of people who commit crimes are the prison statistics.
These are probably a better indication of why people are caught and prosecuted rather then why they committed the crime, and although the different surveys which criminologists use to discover more about the dark figure show a higher criminal statistics then the official figure, this could be due to people including things which they believe is a crime when its not. People have different perceptions of the word crime which can sometimes cause a problem, and can also cause this figure to be inaccurate.
Bibliography
* Ethnographic research (2001) ethnographic research, available from http://www2.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/pa765/ethno.htm (accessed 30/03/05)
* Goetcherian.L,(2005) Methods, getting the measure of crime, Middlesex university.
* ICR (2005) institution for creation research, available from www.icr.org/bible/bhta116.html (accessed 30/03/05)
* Robert, R.(2002) 'crime statistics' Maguire, M, Morgan. R, Reiner. R (3rd Ed) Oxford Handbook of Criminology, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
* Williams. K (2001) Criminology, (4th ed) Oxford time press, Oxford.
