1. Crime statistics

2. Facts- official statistics
CSEW: crime survey of England and wales
PRC: police reported crime
The trend overall for csew is a decrease
Increase

3. Two types of offences there are in britain
Indictable (criminal) offense
Non indictable (summary) offense
Crime which is serious enough to be tried on indictment (a formal charge or accusation of a serious crime) and may attract punishment from imprisonment of more than one year up to life
Is a less serious criminal offense with a maximum punishment of 6 months imprisonment, a fine or both

4. Government agencies involved in law enforcement
Many theories of crime are based in part on official statistics provided by
In Britain, these statistics consistently show that some groups are more likely to be involved in crime than others
The police
Courts
Government agencies involved in law enforcement
Criminal justice system
The w/c
Members of some ethnic minority groups
Young males
The above are more likely to commit crimes according to official statistics than
The m/c
The elderly
Females
White people

5. The recording of crimes
The use of official statistics would be supported by positivists who claim they are ‘objective social facts’. Which you can find trends and patterns from as they are quantitative data
The official statistics allow for comparison between the crimes of different groups and the ability to assess the impact of social and legal policies
In Britain, official statistics on crime are published annually. They provide criminologists, the police, the courts and the media with two types of main data: prc and scew
However, over time it has become clear that not all crimes have been reported in Britain. This has been called the dark figure of crime

6. Dark figure of crime
Individuals don’t report crimes as they might be afraid they wont be taken seriously, didn’t realise it was a crime, know that the police wont be able to help
Eg domestic violence, sex crimes
Also police might not report it as they don’t think its serious enough to log

7. Victim survey –victimisation study
Victim surveys asks people which crimes they have been victims of that they have failed to report
Help to estimate the extent of the dark figure of crime
The studies provide a useful focus on the victims- rather than the perpetrators of crime
As these are based on questionnaires- offer more detail/insight
Some questionnaires fail to be returned- low representativeness
The sensitive nature of topic may lead to high and lower reporting
Public perception of crime may skew results- social characteristics of responsibility, recent events etc

8. Self report studies
A03
This is a survey where people are asked what crimes that they have committed which have not been reported to the police
They help to reveal more about the dark figure of crime. They show crimes that people may never have been apprehended for, and some may be too trivial for reporting
Suffer from validity problems as respondents may over/under exaggerate their answers
Provide a more direct measurement of criminal behaviour by going to the source
Also provides more insight into deviant actions
Such studies may have low respond rates
Rely heavily on memory