Some crimes are left to be unrecorded by the police because they may have numerous serious crimes at the same time and they feel that there is no use wasting crimes in recording the trivial crimes. Another reason is that they may get tired after a long shift and if a few small crimes are pending then they may feel there is no need to record them.
The trends in Police recorded crime figures are often affected by the changes in police activity, coverage, public reporting and recording practices. The police act as a “filtering system” between the information supplied in the form of reported crimes and their interpretations of what factors make crime important. Police officers respond to each incident reported to them in an individualistic way depending on how important they see the crime as.
Marxists argue that crimes against people of a higher social status are more likely to be pursued than crimes against people of a lower social status whilst people of a lower social status or class are more likely to experience law enforcement.
Minor “assaults” may not be investigated by “aggravated assaults” usually are. The classifying of crimes makes a difference to its chances of being investigated as they will vary. The canteen culture can also affect the recording of crime. These are a subcultural set of attitudes amongst the lower ranks of the police. These attitudes are often racist and sexist and are reinforced by other police officers behind closed doors. Thus police actions are often guided by this canteen culture and not the law.
There are also alternatives to deal with the Hidden figure of crime and these included methods like victim surveys and self-report studies. With victim surveys it is assumed that by asking people what crimes have been committed against them. They are more likely to provide researchers with a more accurate figure of crime levels.
Victim surveys take into account of the unreported and unrecording of crime. This is one strength of this survey as opposed to official criminal statistics. One weakness about Victim surveys is that not all crimes may be present/asked for. The other alternative is self-report studies and these are questionnaires handed out to the people/victims. However weaknesses about this particular method is that some people may exaggerate or lie making it invalid.
To conclude, there will always be a hidden figure of crime as sociologists will never really know the true extent of criminality as in order for this, there has to be an honest society.
by
kalpa_444 (student)
