STUDENT ID 1305397 - CRIMINOLOGY WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 2015
This question focuses on crime and its measurement which is one of the most controversial topics in modern times. There has been a lot of debates by politicians, the media and the general public whether crime is falling or rising. We shall attempt a definition of what is crime, what are crime statistics, what is known and not known about crime in England and Wales, the techniques used in measuring crime, and the evaluation of the strength and weaknesses of the different ways of measuring crime. Our final discussion will be on the reliability of the statistical data and the criminologists view or perspective of the various data sources.
Crime is the "study of the making of laws, the
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Statistics in modern society is very vital tool for governance. Statistics are "relatively large scale", which "uses numeric data and statistical procedures to analyse such data and reach conclusions" .
The Crime Survey for England and Wales reported that in the year ending 2014, crime had fallen from the previous year. Also the current survey figures published by the Statistical bulletin for England and Wales in the year ending March, 2015 'shows a 7% reduction from the previous year. The survey showed that for the offences covered, there was an estimated 6.8 million incidents of crime against households and resident adults (aged 16 and above). This showed a decrease of 7% and the lowest estimate since the CSEW began in 1981. ' The sources of official crime statistics in England and Wales are from police records and Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). The police recorded crimes are report from the public, confessions from arrested offenders and through police investigations via the emergency telephone emergency system (the 999 number in UK). The police only records crimes known as 'notifiable offences ' and these are divided into ten categories, namely, burglary, robbery, handling stolen goods, violence against the person, criminal damage, theft, fraud and forgery.
The National Crime Recording Standard requirement was that the police record a crime if "the circumstances as reported amount to a crime as
The National Incident Based Reporting System is currently being tested to replace the Uniform Crime Report. This new system will expand from the eight major crimes currently being used in the Uniform Crime Report and it will also include demographic data on victim, perpetrator and crime. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “The NIBRS is an incident-based reporting system in which agencies collect data on each single crime occurrence. NIBRS data come from local, state, and federal automated records’ systems. An agency can build a system to suit its own needs, including
Measuring crime is based on three main measurements; criminal justice system data, crime experience surveys and other sources called administrative data (Hayes & Makkai, 2015). Firstly, crime first needs to be categorised into types of crime that is classified under the Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (Hayes & Makkai, 2015). Only the main and select few offences are reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in collecting annual reported crimes (Hayes & Makkai, 2015). Through ABS, it collects crime data in different ways such as crime reports, victimisations surveys, administrative data (higher courts, magistrates and policing agendas etc.,) and self-reports (Hayes & Makkai, 2015). Crime reports measure crimes such as homicide, robbery, rape, assault and more but is collected through police jurisdictions (Reid, 2012). The strength of crime reports provides additional information such as arrests, charges, officers assaults and characteristics of homicide victims (Reid, 2012). This helps to measure crime more effectively through gaining descriptions and knowledge of identifying crime and criminal behaviour more accurately (Reid, 2012). Administrative data is often helpful in collating data of sentences and jail sentences but fails to collect the ‘dark figure’ of crime (Hayes & Makkai, 2015). National Crime Victimisation Surveys (NCVS)
Violent crime covers four categories of offenses: robbery, forcible rape, aggravated assault, murder and non-negligent manslaughter. Property crime on the other hand comprises four classes of offences namely: arson, burglary, motor vehicle theft, and larceny (Bioshop and Frazier, 2006).
The UCR has two main classifications of crimes, the first being crimes committed against another person, also referred to as index crimes. This includes crimes such as homicides, sexual assault, robbery, domestic abuse and crimes related to directly affecting another individual. The other classification is crimes committed against property. This includes crimes such as burglary, arson, motor vehicle theft, and larceny.
Although crime has been around for ages, we only started collecting crime data around the 1930’s. Crime statistics show a lot about a country, state, county, etc. Crime can be linked to the environment, behavior of others, and personal experiences, it all depends on how the person deals with the hand they are dealt. Crime data is collected from three sources, which are uniform crime reports (UCR), national incident based reporting system (NIBRS), and national crime victimization survey (NCVS).
In 2015, there were an estimated 1,197,704 violent crimes. Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter increased 10.8 percent when compared with estimates from 2014. Rape and aggravated assault increased 6.3 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively, while robbery increased 1.4 percent.There were an estimated 7,993,631 property crimes. The estimated numbers for two of the three property crimes show declines when compared with the previous year’s estimates. Burglaries dropped 7.8 percent, larceny-thefts declined 1.8 percent, but motor vehicle thefts rose 3.1 percent.
Also the report will comment on the problems that are associated with recorded crime figures, including the limitations of recorded crime figures and then how they can be linked back to the statistics from the Lowville Community. Another potential reason that this report will discuss is the dark figure of crime other concepts such as cuffing. This report will additionally look at how media representations affect how crime is seen and what this makes the residents think also. Finally this report will touch upon the crime filter that exists within every constabulary and community. With all this evidence and arguments this report will eventually explain why the crime figures reported by the Lowville Constabulary do not appear to reflect the experiences of crime that the elderly residents have experienced in their community.
These offences are categorized into 3 different crime categories which are crimes towards a person, towards property, or towards society, which in year 2012 there were 64.8% property crimes (causing harm to property/a location), 23.2% crimes against a person (causing harm to a person), and 12% crimes against society( not necessarily hurting the society but putting in danger people’s lives and the surroundings of the community). Group A handles all the major crimes and keeps closer track of the statistics depending on each offense. The report takes note of every single data provided for them, if no data was available for the situation being reported the system puts in a probable answer, for better results. (Investigation F. B., National Based Reporting System,
The article I will be critiquing for SOCI 247, is one published by Sky news back in April 2014. As the title explains, the published title expresses crime has fallen to its lowest in 33 years within England and Wales. I will be looking in great depth to identify what Sky news mean by crime and whether they are measuring this as overall crime or whether it is certain aspects of crimes which have been affected by this decrease. I will also refer to different media articles which may have similar aspects and compare statistics to what is relevant within the public at the time of when there are popular crimes.
The measurement of crime is an often overlooked fundamental subject in the field of criminal justice. There are various aspects to be considered when measuring crime; and almost as many questions. How is crime measured? What is the purpose of measuring crime? This paper explores these questions and more concerning crime measurement in the United States. Therefore, in this paper, the instruments used to measure crime are examined; major crime reporting programs and their purposes are discussed; crime, arrest, clearance, and recidivism rates are explained in detail; and what the crime and recidivism statistics tells humans about crime in America is also analyzed.
The National Crime Victimization Survey reported that in 2014 there were 5,359,570 victims of violent crime, and 15,288,470 victims of property crime. The National Crime Victimization Survey only collects their data of nonfatal, not reported to police and crimes reported to police against persons 12 or older.
The Extent to Which Official Crime Statistics Provides a Reliable Estimate of the Amount of Crime Committed in England and Wales
During this essay, I will be discussing recorded crime statistics and victimisation surveys as they are our primary techniques of measuring levels and trends of crime. After briefly explaining what is meant by these terms, I will seek to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in order to question the extent to which they are reliable resources that provide us with accurate information.
The given line chart shows how the crimes changed during a 35-year period from 1970 to 2005 in England and Wales, including car theft, house burgling as well as street robbery.
Although official' statistics should provide an accurate representation of crime, criminologists and sociologists are keen to emphasize that they should be seen in a critical mindset. This essay is focused on determining just to what extent official statistics provide an accurate representation of the extent of crime through examining different arguments concerning their limitations and benefits. This essay also focuses on other types of crime data such as the victim survey and qualitative data, to see whether they provide a more truthful portrayal of crime.