Victimization Surveys
victimization surveys attempts to uncover hidden crime by surveying a representative sample of a chosen population over crimes committed against them (Coleman and Moynihan 1996). Unlike self-reported studies, victimization surveys survey the victim rather than the perpetrator. Those who utilize this technique are aiming to capture crimes, which do not enter official statistics as they are unreported. If similar surveys are carried out over intervals of time, then crime trends can be discovered (Coleman and Moynihan 1996). There are three main types of victimization surveys: local, national and international. Local surveys are small scale and geographically focused. They concentrate on a particular vulnerable social group (Coleman and Moynihan 1996). National surveys, such as the British Crime Survey, examine a larger group of individuals to gain an overall idea of the extent of crime. They are conducted in partnering countries, which are then compare results (Coleman and Moynihan 1996). Victimization surveys have produced impressive results in uncovering the dark figure of crime. However, there are a number of problems associated with it (Coleman and Moynihan 1996).
Advantages
The history of victimization surveys demonstrates its success in uncovering the dark figure of crime. The British Crime Survey (BCS) is a prime example. Through victim surveys, a disparity was found between the reported and unreported crimes in England and Wales (Coleman and Moynihan 1996). During 1991-1993, the official statistics witnessed a 7% increase. However, this is juxtaposed by the results of the BCS that reported an 18% increase (Coleman and Moynihan 1996). In 2001, the BCS estimated that 56% of the comparable subset was recorded. Therefore, through the BCS, it is evident that victimization surveys are a strong method to uncover the dark figure of crime. In 2006, the Central Statistics Office (CSO), part of the Quarterly National Household Surveys, surveyed 39,000 households in Ireland. The CSO concluded that 4.6% of households had been a victim of crime. Approximately 30% of burglaries, 40% of thefts and 48% of assaults were not reported. This demonstrates the effectiveness of victim surveys. Kinsey, Lea and Young (1997) provide additional reason to why data provided by victimizations studies maybe useful in uncovering the dark figure of crime. They argue that inter-city communities have a high level of discontent and lack of faith in the local police as they have a fear reprisals from criminals(Coleman and Moynihan 1996).Therefore they more willing to respond positively to a victimization survey and thus victimization surveys are effective.
Disadvnatages
While victimization surveys are an effective method of uncovering the dark figure of crime, there are problems. The major issue is that victimization surveys only measure crimes with identifiable victims. Undiscovered crimes, such as environmental degradation, are impossible to uncover in victim surveys. The surveys also do not cover ‘victimless’ or ‘consensual’ crimes where a complainant is non-existent. These include activities where the main impact is on the perpetrator like illicit drug use and prostitution. It also includes other crimes against the state where there is no direct victim such as trafficking and importation of illegal drugs, sale of pornography, illegal gambling, immigration crime, intellectual property crime, piracy, terrorism and organised crimes.
Sample size can also negatively impact uncovering the dark figure. As crime is a relatively rare event, the sampling size must be sufficiently. This can demonstrated in the 1992 BCS survey where 45% of respondents recalled being victims of crime. Furthermore, the sample must demographically represent the population, which can be difficult due to non-respondents. Mayhew argued that non-respondents include a disproportionately high number of victims. In contrast, Crawford disagrees. He contends that the incentive for victims to participate is substantially higher than non-victims. This means that in order to discover the dark figure of crime, criminologists must rely upon informed speculations gathered from studies of known victims, as it is not clear why there are non-respondents. Furthermore Sparks says female victims of violence tend to refuse to be interviewed more often than male victims (Sparks 1977).
Inaccurate survey responses from victims can have a bearing on the reliability of results. As crime is considered a relative salient event, it was thought individuals would be able to recall incidents of victimization. However, victims memories decayed at a faster rate than criminologist had anticipated with respondents forgetting their victimizations. This is found by an initial pilot study, which outlined that 60% of the worst crimes were reported as occurring in the last three years. According Hindelang this is a far greater number than expected. Recall periods had forward and backward telescoping issues. Forward telescoping is when the victim’s recollection period is brought forward. This contrasts with backward telescoping, which occurs when victimization period is shifted back. Concealment and fabrication is another ptoblem, which compromises the factualness of the victimization survey. Walklate argues that those crimes which are less likely to be reported to the authorities are also unlikely to be recorded by the surveys. This is exemplified in the Merseyside Crime Survey, which failed to record any sexual offences. Very little is know about the degree of fabrications within surveys, but Levine suggests that it is a methodological issue. It is conceivable that respondents fabricate some issues in order to not disappoint the interviewer. Inaccuracies can also be developed as the surveys quite often fail to report on particular groups such as prisoners and children.
Geospatial Analysis
During the last twenty years, geospatial analysis has been a method used to uncover the dark figure of crime. The analysis involves plotting crime incidents by location and formally comparing the incidence of events by their spatial distribution to identify hotspots of criminal activity (Attewell 2001). Incidence of crime is plotted on a map, which allows for hotspots of criminal activity to be uncovered. This is either done for individual incidents (point based) or for aggregate data in pre-defined geographical units (area based) (Attewell 2001). The development of geospatial analysis in the fighting of crime occurred in New York City with the development of Compstat. On a weekly basis, the NYPD compile a summary of the week’s crime complaints, arrests and summons activities, as well as a written recapitulation of significant cases. This data is then placed into the city wide database.
Advantages
Compstat has been successful in reducing the crime rates and uncovering the dark figure of crime (Attewell 2001). Once accurate data has been collected, officers’ can focus their effort on the ‘hotspots’ of crime. It allows strategies to be created and delegated to specific subordinate command personnel. It also allows officer’s to “think outside the box” to ensure that problems are addressed in an optimal fashion (Attewell 2001). Sufficient resources must be used in those particular areas of high crime in order to prevent further crime and uncover undiscovered crime. This may have attributed with a 66% decline in crime since in the inception of Compstat in 1994.
Disadvantages
The most significant criticism of geospatial analysis, especially in Compstat, is that it may discourage officers from taking crime reports in order to create a false appearance of a reduction of community problems. According to journalist Radley Balko, "some recent reports from New York City suggest the program needs some tweaking to guard against the twin dangers of unnecessary police harassment and underreporting of serious crimes” (Balko 2010). This is also evident in David Chen’s article in the New York Times who stated, “An anonymous survey of "hundreds of retired high-ranking police officials . . . found that tremendous pressure to reduce crime, year after year, prompted some supervisors and precinct commanders to distort crime statistics” (Chen 2010). In addition, the severity of crimes may be downplayed in order to manipulate the data. The issue was further publicized in 2010 when NYPD officer Adrian Schoolcraft released recordings of his superiors urging him to manipulate data (Long and Hayes 2010).
Enforcement Pyramid
The prosecution of white collar offenders, especially high-placed managers and directors, is likely to have a salutary effect. Criminologists believe that individuals of high wealth are considered to sufficiently deterred by criminal and regulatory forces as apposed to general street criminals (Marmo, De Lint, Palmer 2011). Therefore, John Braithwaite’s Enforcement Pyramid is often seen as an adequate method to uncover the dark figure of crime and prevent future crimes from occurring (Marmo, De Lint, Palmer 2011). The pyramid utilizes informal and formal approaches the actions ranging from persuasion to criminal penalty and license revocation (Marmo, De Lint, Palmer 2011).
Advantages
The utilization of both punishment and persuasion is a positive method of uncovering white-collar crimes. According to Ayres and Braithwaite, persuasion should be the strategy of first choice because preserving the perception of fairness is important to nurturing voluntary compliance (Murphy 2004). Sociologists believe that individuals and firms will regard tough enforcement action as more procedurally fair after persuasion has been used. It is also imperative that regulatory forces punish rule breakers, which is only able to occur if regulators actively devote their resources to uncovering hidden crimes and therefore treating them appropriately. Ayres and Braithwaite (1992) argue that the greater the heights of tough enforcement to which an agency can escalate (Braithwaite 1992). The more effective the agency will be at securing compliance and the less likely that it will have to resort to tough enforcement (Braithwaite 1992).
Disadvantages
The effectiveness of the Enforcement Pyramid in uncovering hidden crime is often challenged due to the way in which white-collar criminals utilize embedded laws and regulations to escape prosecution (Marmo, De Lint, Palmer 2011). This is particularly the case with limited liability companies, which allows individuals to escape the responsibilities involved in investing (Marmo, De Lint, Palmer 2011). In addition, the concept of capitalism entices companies to cut corners in order to establish higher levels of profits (Marmo, De Lint, Palmer 2011). Quite often government’s will fail to resolve these issues in order to avoid an anti-business image being formed.
Conclusion
The dark figure of can be found through self-reporting surveys, victimization surveys, geospatial analysis and the Enforcement Pyramid. However all these methodologies have problems associated with them and therefore can produce inaccurate results. Therefore despite their success they are unable to uncover all the dark figures of crime.
Bibliography
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