Assess The Usefulness Of Crime Analysis

Assess the usefulness of crime statistics to a sociological understanding of crime?

Criminal statistics are usually quoted as 'hard facts'; are often used to support the view that there is a rapidly increasing rate of serious crime in modern society. It is on the basis of these statistics that important decisions are made by governments in relation to their policies towards crime and its treatment. However the positivistic reliance on such statistics as the basis of their sociology has been brought into question by constructivist approaches - interpretive sociology and critical sociology both of which refuse to take the statistics at face value. The former raised questions about the scientific claims of positivism; demonstrated that the
In terms of age, both sexes, criminal activity appears to peak in adolescence and early adulthood. C.Coleman & J.Moynihan suggests that the Official Statistics are biased in such a way as to over-represent young offenders and under-represent the older offender. In terms of sex criminal statistics in all countries have consistently shown that more males than females appear before the courts and are convicted for criminal activities. Official statistics suggest that women tend to commit a relatively narrow band of offences in comparison to men. The difference can be in part explained by differing socialisation and social expectations. There is the difference of opportunities as men are more likely to occupy public spaces as against the private spaces. However Pollak has suggested that women may not feature so highly in the statistics as they may meet more lenient policing or sentencing with a greater likelihood of a caution or a non-custodial sentence. In terms of ethnicity black people seem to be disproportionately among the known offender population, at least for certain
The public statement by the Metropolitan Police that there was increase in violent crime by black offenders in the early 1980's was not a lie, but its impact was altered if put against a Newcastle statistic. In Carol Willis's study of the time Newcastle F Division had a higher rate of similar crime than Lambeth. There were similar problems of unemployment, but the difference in the case of Newcastle was that the offenders were white. Put in that context, people would have had to decode the statistics in a different fashion. However, Sir Paul Condon, Police Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police Force, failed to move beyond the same conclusion over a decade later July 1995. Another report produced by the Home Office in the mid-1980’s