Crime and Deviance
Understanding Crime Statistics
1. The level of recorded crime may decrease due to the enormous pressure and expectations put on police departments by society to keep crime down. Increased and improved police resources and harsher custodial sentences is what Police departments claim to be the reason for the reduction in crime.
However this being said it has been suggested that Police departments may have altered crime statistic figures, in order to meet new Home Office efficiency targets.
“Crime experts say that at least 2220,000 crimes, including burglary, assault, theft and car crimes, vanished from the official statistics last year as a result of police manipulation of the figures” The Sunday Times, 16th October 1994.
This evidence suggests that not only are crime statistics inaccurate, but also that Police departments are concealing the true situation and real number of criminal incidences. Additionally not only have crimes disappeared off record but also serious crimes such as violent attacks, burglaries and car theft are being recorded as less serious crimes which do not appear on the official crime statistics. All of this evidence contributes to the idea that the ‘so called fall in recorded crime’ is misleading to say the least.
2. The reason why the levels of conviction may increase for any type of offence can be a result of many different factors. Some of which include, more crimes being reported to the Police, therefore leading to more possible convictions. Increased and improved police resources, for example number plate recognition (identifying drives without insurance and tax). Increase in CCTV and security systems. The courts may decide to increase the consequences for different types of crime by making an example of a number of offenders.
Another reason for an increase could be due to a crack down on a specific sort of crime. For example in 2008 police in Nottinghamshire decided to launch a campaign in order to crack
1. The level of recorded crime may decrease due to the enormous pressure and expectations put on police departments by society to keep crime down. Increased and improved police resources and harsher custodial sentences is what Police departments claim to be the reason for the reduction in crime.
However this being said it has been suggested that Police departments may have altered crime statistic figures, in order to meet new Home Office efficiency targets.
“Crime experts say that at least 2220,000 crimes, including burglary, assault, theft and car crimes, vanished from the official statistics last year as a result of police manipulation of the figures” The Sunday Times, 16th October 1994.
This evidence suggests that not only are crime statistics inaccurate, but also that Police departments are concealing the true situation and real number of criminal incidences. Additionally not only have crimes disappeared off record but also serious crimes such as violent attacks, burglaries and car theft are being recorded as less serious crimes which do not appear on the official crime statistics. All of this evidence contributes to the idea that the ‘so called fall in recorded crime’ is misleading to say the least.
2. The reason why the levels of conviction may increase for any type of offence can be a result of many different factors. Some of which include, more crimes being reported to the Police, therefore leading to more possible convictions. Increased and improved police resources, for example number plate recognition (identifying drives without insurance and tax). Increase in CCTV and security systems. The courts may decide to increase the consequences for different types of crime by making an example of a number of offenders.
Another reason for an increase could be due to a crack down on a specific sort of crime. For example in 2008 police in Nottinghamshire decided to launch a campaign in order to crack