ACR101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Burglary, Data Comparison, Official Statistics
ACR101 Week Three
MEASURING CRIME
Crime can be defined by reference to the law, human rights, and social and political context.
We need policies and procedures to respond to criminal behaviours. Understanding of
particular groups impacts on enforcing the law.
WHY CRIME IS MEASURED:
• to measure performance of criminal justice agencies,
• to evaluate crime prevention programs,
• to resource police and prisons adequately,
• to inform community about crime related risk,
• to identify the likelihood of becoming a victim or an offender,
• to help develop theories of crime, and evaluate their accuracy.
HOW WE MEASURE CRIME:
• Official statistics
• Crime victim surveys
• Self-report surveys --> interviewing offenders and talking about what types of offences
they've committed and how and why they've done that.
• Other data
Measuring crime isn't easy.
Measuring crime is relatively new, media influence (including social media) can make it
difficult due to bias being formed, data comparison limitations can also influence,
differences in recording according to type of crime, and the 'dark figure of crime' (there will
always be a large amount of crime out there that is unknown, not reported to police and not
detected by police).
OFFICIAL STATISTICS:
• Reflect crimes detected by and reported to police
• Presented as:
o Rates (per 100,000 population) to allow some opportunity for comparison.
o Raw numbers of offences that have occurred.
• Accurate interpretation often requires:
o Context e.g. legislative or cultural changes which can cause a particular offence
to look like it has increased or decreased in society.
o Comparison with other relevant statistics
o SIGNIFICANT EXPERTISE.
CRIME STATISTICS AS 'SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS':
• Reflect social variables more than 'reality'
• For example:
o Willingness to report
o Police discretion
o Targeted operations by police - in response to set quotas or public sentiment.
• Offiial data is eer the oplete piture…
• But a e put to politial eds oetheless…
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