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1. Official crime statistics (quantitative secondary data)
What are
they?
Official crime
statistics
(OCS) are a
secondary
documentary
source
which are
mainly
based on
figures from
the police
and the
courts and
are
published by
the Home
Office.
Advantages (Evaluation)
Official crime statistics are favoured by positivist
sociologists. They suggest the following
advantages.
Limitations (Evaluation)
Interactionists question the reliability and validity of official crime statistics. They argue that official statistics vastly underestimate crime and therefore only represent ‘the tip of the
ice berg’. Interactionists argue that the statistics are socially constructed – for the following reasons:
1. Underreporting of known crimes
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

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They offer the opportunity to identify trends in
crime over time. For example, they show
that crime has sharply increased from
the1950s until the early 1990s, and has
fluctuated since then.
The British Crime Survey (BCS) shows that the public do not always report crimes they have been
victims of. In 2008 only 42% of crimes were reported by victims. The BCS estimates that the most
common reasons for not reporting crimes are: too trivial and a belief that the police would or could do
nothing. Such underreporting lowers the total volume of measured crime.
They provide useful information on the social
make up of offenders. For example, crime
statistics show that offenders are often
working class, male, juveniles, of which a
high proportion are blacks.
2. Invisibility of white collar crime & cybercrime
It is possible to use the statistics to generate
and test sociological explanations of crime.
For example, left realists largely take official
statistics at face value and develop a causal
explanation of working class, male, juvenile
crime in terms of marginalisation, relative
deprivation and subcultures.
 Corporate crime which is committed on behalf of an organisation.
They help government’s shape and evaluate
their policies on law and order. For example,
recent rises in crime have persuaded the
government to introduce restorative justice
programmes (bringing offenders and victims
together).
They are easily accessible and up-to-date.
For example, the Home Office publishes their
crime statistics on their website at least once
a year.
Examples of white collar crime
Official statistics underestimate white collar crime & cybercrime. Such crimes often go unreported or
prove difficult for agencies of social control to detect. White collar crimes are generally committed by
middle class people whilst at work. There are two main types of white collar crime:
 Occupational crime which is committed at the expense of an organisation.
Examples of cybercrime
The relative invisibility of white collar crime is a significant problem as it means that official statistics
significantly underestimate middle class crime (crimes of the powerful).
Cybercrime refers to criminal acts committed with the help of information technology (committed by
working class and middle class people). For example, Internet-based fraud, illegal downloads and
cyberbullying.
Langan (1996) suggests the following reasons why white collar crimes and cybercrimes are difficult to
detect:

Victims may be unaware a crime has been committed.

Often dealt with internally to avoid possible embarrassment for the company.

Their global nature and complexity makes them difficult and expensive to detect.
3. The police do not record all known crime
The 2008 BCS estimated that the police only record 75% of reported crime. Such levels of underrecording clearly create a large a dark figure of hidden crime. A number of reasons
exist for such underrecording, for example the police may not accept that a crime has been committed.
4. Selective law enforcement
A number of sociologists have argued that the police are more likely to concentrate on offenders from the least powerful sections of society. Home Office research shows that
blacks are X8 more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than whites. Such police bias leads to the over-representation of powerless groups in official crime statistics.
5. Artificial fluctuations in crime rates
One further reason why official crime statistics can be said to be socially constructed is because crime rates can rise or fall for reasons other than more or less law breaking taking
place in society. Fattah (1997) identifies a number of ‘artificial’ factors that can affect crime rates, including:


Changes in the recording of crime e.g. in 1998 common assault and assault on a police office was recorded as a crime, increasing the figures on violent crime considerably.
Changes in the law e.g. driving a car without a hands free phone.
In conclusion left realists offer a sensible response to crime statistics. They recognise that official statistics have limitations. However, they do not dismiss them out of hand as interactionists tend to do. Instead, they argue that they show the basic
reality of crime, and that they can be useful if supplemented with other quantitative measures such as local victim surveys.
Sample questions
1a) Examine the uses of official crime statistics when studying crime and deviance (12 marks).
1b) Assess the usefulness of official statistics to a sociological understanding of crime (21 marks).
2ai) Identify and briefly explain one advantage of official crime statistics to study crime (3 marks).
2aii) Identify and briefly explain two problems of studying crime through official crime statistics (6marks).
2b) Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the strengths and limitations of official statistics in explaining the extent of crime in society (15 marks).
Further reading
Pages
Pages
Webb R et al. (2009) AQA A2 level Sociology, Napier press.
Haralambos M (2009) Sociology in Focus AQA A2 level, Causeway Press.