Recorded Crime
Why might the figures for recorded crime underestimate the actual amount of crime that takes place?
Brief definition of crime and the process from committed crime to prosecution.
An overview of recorded crime numbers between the years 1876-2000. Given statistics of the actual amount of recorded and unrecorded crime.
Possible reasons and examples for crimes not being recorded based on BCS surveys.
To define crime we have to look at it from two different perspectives, one is based on the legal point of view and the other one will be normative, viewed from the society’s or the individual’s perspective. Crime defined by the Law means actions that violate the exact word of a law whereas the normative definition of crime says that crimes …show more content…
It shows that it is a serious problem within the British society which needs to be addressed and deeply analyzed. Surveys carried out by the British Crime Survey prove as well that the numbers are greatly understated. The estimate in 1998 was 16,437,000 recorded crime compared to the total of 4,595,300 not recorded (DD121 Introductory Chapter, Mirrlees-Black et al., …show more content…
One of the main problems is people simply not reporting events. The same survey as above focused furthermore on exactly that setback, asking respondents to give reasons for not reporting a crime. Results showed that generally people thought the police wasn’t capable to do anything about some of the incidents or wouldn’t even be interested partly because the events are thought not to be of priority to the police. This shows that people are being let down a lot of the times and there is no sufficient protection for the citizens. Some respondents simply say they don’t care about what happened and deal with the matter in their own ways without reporting it. Fear of revenge from the offenders is a factor as well (DD121 Introductory Chapter 2004).
A question comes to mind at this point: could it be that numbers of crime rise because it is being less reported? At present we are witnessing an era of a fast social economic change and according to criminologist Mike Maguire those changes INCREASE the number of reported crimes. The vast access to phones gives more opportunities to report incidents; insurance policies require us to report theft or damage in order to process claims. But also a whole range of new crimes arises by fast developing technologies, like computer-hacking or child pornography on the
Brief definition of crime and the process from committed crime to prosecution.
An overview of recorded crime numbers between the years 1876-2000. Given statistics of the actual amount of recorded and unrecorded crime.
Possible reasons and examples for crimes not being recorded based on BCS surveys.
To define crime we have to look at it from two different perspectives, one is based on the legal point of view and the other one will be normative, viewed from the society’s or the individual’s perspective. Crime defined by the Law means actions that violate the exact word of a law whereas the normative definition of crime says that crimes …show more content…
It shows that it is a serious problem within the British society which needs to be addressed and deeply analyzed. Surveys carried out by the British Crime Survey prove as well that the numbers are greatly understated. The estimate in 1998 was 16,437,000 recorded crime compared to the total of 4,595,300 not recorded (DD121 Introductory Chapter, Mirrlees-Black et al., …show more content…
One of the main problems is people simply not reporting events. The same survey as above focused furthermore on exactly that setback, asking respondents to give reasons for not reporting a crime. Results showed that generally people thought the police wasn’t capable to do anything about some of the incidents or wouldn’t even be interested partly because the events are thought not to be of priority to the police. This shows that people are being let down a lot of the times and there is no sufficient protection for the citizens. Some respondents simply say they don’t care about what happened and deal with the matter in their own ways without reporting it. Fear of revenge from the offenders is a factor as well (DD121 Introductory Chapter 2004).
A question comes to mind at this point: could it be that numbers of crime rise because it is being less reported? At present we are witnessing an era of a fast social economic change and according to criminologist Mike Maguire those changes INCREASE the number of reported crimes. The vast access to phones gives more opportunities to report incidents; insurance policies require us to report theft or damage in order to process claims. But also a whole range of new crimes arises by fast developing technologies, like computer-hacking or child pornography on the