Official Crime Statistics

For what reasons do official crime statistics fail to provide an accurate portrayal of the level of crime in society?

Crime is ‘an action or omission which constitutes an offence which is punishable by law’ (Oxford Dictionary). Criminal behaviour is an issue in society today. Crime statistics providing evidence is vastly important because the government or police forces can look at the level of crime, identify if is increasing or decreasing; remedy the situation using prevention tactics. Consequently, the statistics are influenced by actions and decisions of the people who have a participative role in the criminal justice system (Brownstein, 2000). There are various techniques in the way official crime statistics can be recorded; the Home
The first stage is discovery, which is an essential stage in order to be recorded. However it is difficult, as certain crimes may not easily be detected due to no individual victim being found (Joyce, 2013). The next stage is reporting the crime to the police. Witness intimidation is a serious problem because if they are not reporting the crime, there is a higher possibility offenders may reoffend and the crime statistics are not correct. ‘’In 1998 BCS, all victims regardless of the type of crime suffered were asked if they had been harassed.’’ (Tarling, Dowds, Budd; 2000). According to Tarling, Dowds and Budd, it was found that in the BCS 1998, 390 incidents had led to incidents of harassment. Twice as many women (10%) than men (6%) said they had been a victim of intimidation. Especially for sexual offences, victims that have been through this tragic incident do not report and it is highly known that a high proportion of offences are not reported due to many reasons. For example, because it is an extremely distressing experience for them and they would have to relive it all again if they report it, it will make the experience more traumatic therefore will not go through with it. This is only one of the many reasons victim do not report. Saying this, ever since changes in National Crime Recording Standards (NCRS), there was the largest amount of recordings – 26,703 numbers of rape and 53,559 numbers of sexual offences in year 2002 (ONS:2014). The rise in sexual offences may be due to changes in Sexual Offences Act 2003 or the Operations Yewtree after Jimmy Saville’s infamous act. The changes to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 was to clarify a clear definition. According to the Guardian, the new act makes consent vastly important when sexual acts occur between adults and must show they had reasonable grounds