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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 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.