Preview

Outline and assess the importance of victim surveys for sociological understanding of crime and deviance.

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
588 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Outline and assess the importance of victim surveys for sociological understanding of crime and deviance.
There are many problems associated with the police recording of crime statistics, the main problem being that many crimes go unreported. As an alternative it was suggested that a cross section of the population should be asked about the crimes that have been commited against them. It was argued that more people would be likley to report crimes to an anonymous survey than to the police.

There are several reasons why so many crimes go unreported. Some people may be too shocked or ashamed to report a crime, such as in cases of rape. Some may be in fear of reprisal, or may be protecting the offender, such as in cases of domestic violence. Other victims may think that the crime is too trivial or that the police would not be able to help anyway.

Apart from crimes that are not reported, there are also crimes that are not recorded by the police. It is estimated that only 40% of reported crime is recorded. Therefore victim surveys are important to give a more realistic understanding of crime.

The British Crime Survey (BCS) is now conducted on an annual basis, on approximatley 15,000 households. The sample is designed to be as representative as possible, selecting households from all over the country. The BCS in 1998 discovered that, only one in four crimes are reported to the police, car theft is the most likley to be reported (98%) whilst most other crimes have a report rate of less than 50%, of all crimes vandalism is the most under-reported. The crime being 'too trivial' is the most commonly given reason for not reporting crime. It also discovered that most crimes are property crimes.

However there are some problems with the BCS. The most obvious one being that as a victim survey it misses out crimes that have no victims, such as fraud and corporate crime. When it is considered that there is more mony lost from this type of crime than from all other forms of theft and robbery, it is clear that it is too serious to be overlooked. It also undercounted sexual crimes

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    “If you commit the crime, you are guilty”(Rush Limbaugh). Even though not all crimes are reported to the police, crime rates have fallen since the early 1990’s. For example, the country of Honduras has the average highest murder rate at about 90 people per 100,000 people. The criminals that commit the crime are most likely going to lie to you. They may make up stories and pretend it was something else. Queenie Keithley is guilty because she left the country club 10 minutes early, she was in an argument with her husband, Joe, and the glass in Joe’s hand was not broken after he “fell” down the stairs.…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Official Government Statistics are accumulated from police and count records; these include convictions, cautions and Crown prosecution service. Whereas, the British crime survey is a victim study which takes place every year. It shows a representative sample of over 16s living in private residents in England and Wales. It is untaken by face to face interviews where respondents are asked about their experiences with crime incidents in the last 12 months. In 2004/5 over 45,000 people took part in the survey. It helps to identify those people most at risk of different types of crime which helps them to plan prevention programmes. The British Crime survey looks at people’s attitude toward crime and the Criminal Justice system. Self report studies ask people if they have committed a series of offences over a period time, which they haven’t got caught or haven’t reported to the police. Most people don’t know that they have committed a crime or even know the penalties for the crimes which they have done. For example, using the company phone to make a personal call can result in £5,000 or 6 months on prison.…

    • 2381 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Uniform Crime Reports (URC) is the most cited and well known reporting method. This, method was created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1930, this program’s primary objective is to produce dependable information. The URC only collects data on the most serious crimes. The National Incident-Based Reporting System(NIBRS) goes hand and hand with the URC. This reporting system corrects the shortcomings of the URC, it collects information on all criminal acts. NIBRS relies on police departments to repots precisely. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NVCS) reporting method was directed in 1972. NVCS is based on the victim’s self-reports, instead of on police reports. This survey contains data on six crimes: rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In addition, what kind of message is it sending to the victims of these so-called, ‘lesser’ crimes that they are not important enough to be recorded? How are these people supposed to feel? Will they even bother to call the police the next time a crime is committed against them? Statistics say no. The dark figure of crime exists because of situations like this where the victims of crime are left feeling completely and utterly abandoned by a system that apparently only favors a wow-factor.…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The second thing is the dark figure of crime which is the undetected or unreported crimes (Theoretical Criminology, 2011). Most people don’t want to report crimes because they feel embarrassed, are afraid no one will believe them, and or they are just afraid to report it. The most common reason for the existence of dark figure is non-reporting of crimes (Theoretical Criminology, 2011). It is estimated that the dark figure of crimes makes 66% of all committed crimes (Theoretical Criminology, 2011).…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Uniform Crime Reporting Program, or UCR, relates crime rates to arrest rates and clearance rates annually through the ‘Crime in the United States’ publication. This report (although not foolproof) gives a statistical picture of how arrests and clearance rates compare to actual crimes reported based on information reported from law enforcement departments across the United States. The UCR, as well as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), may show higher rates of crime, arrest, and clearance in areas with higher population or lower rates in areas with lower population. The most successful way to improve the correlation of crime, arrest, and clearance rates in effort to combat criminal activity would be to rely on the information provided…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the biggest issues with crime analysis is the dark figure of crime. The dark figure of crime has to be taken into account because it will tamper with the data. This causes the data not to reflect crime accurately. If the criminal commits more than one crime, the UCR also only lists the most severe crime (FBI-Uniform Crime Report, 2011, para. 1). In other words, all crime data is not recorded.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Consider that most reported crimes do not result in an arrest and conviction, futhermore, national crime victimization surveys reveal that most crimes are simply not reported to the police.…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    NT1210

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1) Out of 1000 serious crimes 500 are unreported crimes, out of 500 crimes reported to the police 400 are unsolved crimes.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    most crimes are not reported, most of crimes that are reported are not solved by police…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Every Year the FBI record the number of criminal acts and the number of people arrested. They call it the Uniform Criminal Act (UCR) which is the most widely used source of national crime and delinquency statistics. Many question whether it’s valid or not because less than half of all victims report the crime to the police. They came up with a solution by creating the National Crime Victimization Survey (NVS) that address the non reporting issue. NCVS collects information on crimes suffered by individuals and households. Another survey called Self-Report is used to measure the extent of delinquency. They can describe, in detail, their recent and lifetime participation in criminal activity. This report is given in groups, so they can ensure…

    • 186 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dark Figure Of Crime

    • 112 Words
    • 1 Page

    Crimes are legally defined and allow us to measure them; however, for crime to be accurately measured in society, it must be reported or detected first. This is an important factor when crime data is generated and compared. Due to multiple factors not all crimes can be detected by police or reported by victims, thus creating what is known as a dark figure of crime. The ‘dark figure of crime’ is defined as the amount of crime that is undetected, not reported and not recorded (Hayes & Makkai 2015). These figures can result in many people questioning whether official data and statistics from the police, the courts and correctional facilities are accurate.…

    • 112 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Looking at Crime Statistics and Victimisation Surveys can be very helpful when looking at the rates in which crimes are committed and the annual crime rate throughout the UK. This essay will cover the strengths and weaknesses of Official Crime Statistics and Victimisation Surveys. This will show if the strengths and weaknesses contradict each other. Presented within this essay you will find information about crime statistics and how they have changed over the past 30 years. Finally you will find a comparison of some of the crime rates and statistics from previous years dated back to the 1990’s.…

    • 2396 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Left realists argue that the national victimization research, such as the British Crime Survey, can been used to give an average risk rate that ignores the variations in crime between areas. Such studies can be used to view people's fear of crime as 'irrational'. According to Young, "The (local) victimization survey accurately provides a map of the problems of an area. Although based on public input, it delivers what any individual member of the public is ignorant of: that is how private problems are publicly…

    • 86 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I agree, it isn’t rare that crimes are being unreported; but here is the thing. For example, rape and physical abuse happens every day according to Victims of Sexual Violence. They state that every 98 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted or physically abused. Weather it is Sexual assault, rape, or physically abused the average, victim is 12 years or older in the United States. Without seeing these numbers, one could not fathom the severity or the impact this could have. Yes, we hear about it on the news or through social media but without really understanding society is ill in formed and for that they are unwilling to report the crimes.…

    • 112 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics