To what extent would sociologists agree that official criminal statistics by themselves, do not give an accurate picture of the extent of crime.

Furthermore the official criminal statistics don’t always tell the truth because there are lots of crimes which are not reported by people for various reasons, so the police are not aware. For example people might find the offence to private and would not report it or the victim suffered no loss etc... This has an affect on the statistics because there might be a lot of crime which is not reported, therefore the statistics would not tell accurate results on crime. Another reason why the official criminal statistics might be wrong is because people may consider the reported crime to be too trivial or to be a mistake. This will have an affect on the overall statistics because the crime reported might be minor such as theft of £1.50 from an old lady’s purse, but yet reported and put into the official criminal statistics. So there might be some crime in the statistics which shouldn’t really be there, therefore the statistics might not tell the truth. Moreover not all crimes are detected in the first place, so it cannot be reported to the police. For example a man might get away with pick pocketing a person without him/her realising it, so this crime will not be detected. Moving on some crimes might not be recorded by the police because the crime might be seen as a less serious offence and so it cannot be recorded by the police. However serious crimes such as car theft and murder are more likely to be reported by police and to be put

into the official crime statistics. In addition policing may affect the official statistics on crime. For example at certain times of the year the police may try and clamp down specific offences, such as drink driving over the Christmas period. Therefore the official crime statistics might be higher in certain offences because the police might be clamping those specific offences.

  Moving on other sources of information might give an accurate picture of crimes such as victim studies. Victim studies is similar to self reported studies, however victim studies are confidential surveys which ask questions to the person in which crimes have they been involved in or been a victim of. I think that the idea of victim studies is very effective because it can help to give a clear understanding of the official crime statistics. Also it can help and make the statistics clear. Basically the statistics will be clear and will tell the truth because the data is taken from a whole load of different people.

In conclusion I think that the official criminal statistics are ok to some extent but there are other things which help to create a better picture such as self reported studies and victim studies etc… These things can help the make the official crime statistics tell the truth. As where as the official crime statistics might miss out crimes which have not been reported for a number of reasons, the figures will then be not accurate.