Many small crimes are not reported to the police because people may be unaware of it being a crime. Or the police may think that there is no point in keeping a record of the crime as it is a little one, so they don’t take much notice of it as they think it’s a waste of times. Such as, a person riding a bike, without lights in the dark. They would rather just ignore it or give a warning to the person riding the bike. They wouldn’t really lock someone up or take serious action for little crimes such as these. So people tend to repeat these little crimes, as they don’t really get in trouble for it.
The reasons why small crimes are not reported are because people may think that they are not as serious as other crimes, so the police may not take it that serious. Small crimes may not been seen as deviant to some people or they may be unaware that it is a crime. Such as, riding a bike without lights in the dark.
Some crimes are victimless such as stealing from school. If you would be stealing from school no one would really be the victim. As the school equipment is given by the government, for the children. So if you are stealing from school, it’s like you’re stealing from yourself and your peers.
The reasons why victimless crimes are not reported to the police are because most are not recognised, or reported as stealing a pencil or pen from school wouldn’t really be seen as a crime when it actually is. People do not really take these thefts as deviant they see it more like; oh the person may have forgotten to return the pen or pencil. When actually, the person just wanted to keep it. This may make the person keep on repeating this crime as they get away with it.
The police do not record all of the incidents that are reported to them as they think some crimes are not as serious as other ones. Or they think some are private such as family matters. For example, when a husband and wife have an argument. So they do not want to get involved in these matters. So really what we are seeing in the official crime statistics is not a true picture of crime at all- it is only the tip of the ice berg. Many of the crimes that are affecting people day to day are referred to by sociologists as the ‘dark figure of crime’. They are crimes we know a little about as they do not feature in the official figures.
The reasons why the police do not record all of the incidents that are reported to them are because some may be difficult to investigate as there is very little evidence. Or low chance of clear up, so they doubt they could solve the case. Also it may be expensive in time and labour to investigate so they may not bother to investigate it.
Although crime statistics are useful in many ways because they are made by the government they could be a possibility that the statistics are politically biased to make the government at the time look good. Also to make people think what the government wants them to think. So the statistics may be shaped how the government may want us to think.
They cannot be fully trusted because people do not report all of the crimes that occur and the police do not record all of the crimes that are reported to them. So really what we are seeing in the official crime statistics is not a true picture of crime at all- it is only the tip of the ice berg. Many of the crimes that are affecting people day to day are referred to by sociologists as the ‘dark figure of crime’. They are crimes we know a little about as they do not feature in the official figures.
