Annotated Bibliography : ' Dark Figure ' Of Crime ' Essay

During the 1970’s to the early 1990’s there had emerged two new approaches to the study of crime and deviance. The discipline of criminology had expanded further introducing right and left realism, both believe in different areas and came together in order to try and get a better understanding on crime and prevention. There were many theorists that had influenced the realism approaches such as; Jock Young (Left Wing) and James Wilson (Right Wing).

As Nils Christie argued, crime is a property of the state (2004). As such, it can be defined by the same systems of ideals which influence the state. Crime statistics, which refer to a category of human acts that society view as deviant, can consequently be argued to be without objectivity (Dorling and Simpson, 1999). The statistics they provide are thus arguably not exact. To a certain extent one could infer they are reflections of society, of those who present the data and most importantly of those who accumulate it. The facts themselves become a socially constructed foundation for social knowledge, which inevitably become subjective. This essay aims to discuss how ideological biases within the Police and to a certain extent the

​The National Crime Victimization Survey has its strengths which include ‘estimating the total amount of annual crimes that are not reported, in addition to, the crimes that are reported to the police. The NCVS provide more information on crimes that the Uniform Crime Report (UCR). The survey is done in the comfort of one’s home where the individual are more comfortable reporting the incident that occurred as opposed to entering a police department to report a crime or a potential crime. According to the textbook, the NCVS help people to understand why crimes are not reported to police and whether the type and nature of the criminal event influences whether the police will ever know it occurred. In some

(Australian Institute of Criminology, 2009, p. 6) The media’s representation of a rapidly increasing violent crime rate is not supported by statistics which reflect that while the crime rate is rising, the rate is steady and it is believed that this number could even be fluctuated by the increase of victims reporting these types of crime to the police. According to the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes 2007, 74% of the respondents had quite a lot/a great deal of confidence in the police to solve crime. (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2007 p. 16-17) Although the statistics show the general trend of violent criminal offences is static, a significant proportion of our population still has the perception that our crime rates are increasing (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2010) due to media influence. Another way the media misrepresents Australia’s crime rate is by selectively reporting violent crimes whilst under reporting other offences, which are more prevalent in society.

1a.) The Dark Figure of Crime is the unknown or unrecorded crime. All too often, there are crimes that do not get reported to the police. Other times, there is simply not enough evidence for the police to report a crime has happened.

The statistics for criminal offences in 2008-2009 and 2009 -2010, revealed a difference of those crimes actually reported to police and that of the crimes that were not. (ABS survey, 2012) It shows me that not everyone feels they have a responsibility to report crimes because of whatever reason they seem fit at the time of crime. It all links in to how society today thinks I guess. Some people think why bother the law is not going to protect us unless we have a status or money, their lying another issue within Australia the social inequality. It is our right and responsibility to protect each other and do right by each other, like my grandmother taught me ‘always do on to others as u would do upon yourself’ or another that I say to my children ‘treat people as u would like to be

The concept of ‘crime’ is something that depends on time, place, and other influences. For this reason, researchers have been trying to get criminologists to rethink their definitions of ‘crime’ and consider the idea of ‘social harm’ which could help better explain the causes of human suffering and the definitions of ‘crime’ and ‘criminals’ and broaden the application of criminal justice. What this rethinking can do for criminologists broadly is give them a broader picture of human psychology as well as the range of harms that individuals, communities, or whole societies experience. In this context this can include crime in the sense of activities of individuals as well as government and institutions.

In recent years, the subject of crime has become an increasingly important theme of political, academic, and public debate. In particular, the media today is more focused on victims than it has ever been before. Through media representations of the ‘ideal victim’, this essay will subsequently show how the media are able to construct and re-affirm pre-existing traditional ideologies within the public realm. In effect, this assignment will critically assess the concept of an ‘ideal victim’ and show how the media have used this when describing crime.

The decision to report crimes to the police can have extensive consequences for victims and the criminal justice system. However, the task of portraying accurate crime statistics is made difficult by the differences between numbers of incidents reported to police, and numbers of people who respond positively to victim surveys. Many people respond to surveys stating that they have been victims of crime, but did not report the crimes to the police. Almost one quarter of burglaries are not reported to police. About one half of robberies, and about two-thirds of assaults are not reported. The reasons for victims not reporting crimes include, but are not limited to the following - the victim felt that the crime was trivial or unimportant, was afraid of reprisal, the victim felt that the police would not, or could not do anything or that it incident

The first article is on media, victims and crimes. The writer Chris Greer (2007) explores ways in which the media portrays the status of a victim and how different criminal acts are presented throughout the media, from some being over represented, unrepresented or misrepresented in news media discourse. The writer expresses how the media mostly covers high level crimes rather than smaller criminal acts which affect society socially and financially. Ferrell (2005: 150) states that the media presents ‘the criminal victimization of strangers rather than the dangerous intimacies of domestic or family conflict’, it can be argued that the media exaggerates crime to create moral panic, this can be a way of controlling public behaviour, and make them

The importance given to certain crimes in the daily newspapers and other media sources shows us proof to the fact that crime is a topic that has the public’s interest and is a focus of their worries (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001). It goes on to discuss the fact that crime as reported on by the media increases the public’s levels of fears and that there is little or no correlation to actual levels of violent crime in our society today.

White R & Haines F, Crime and Criminology: An Introduction, 2nd ed, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2000.

The accuracy and reliability of criminal statistics is something that has been of great discussion through criminology for decades. Whilst some are of the belief that criminal statistics are a misuse of time and resources, others believe that there is some use for them within the criminological community. The inaccuracies of criminal statistics come highlighted in abundance within academic articles and research, many of which highlight the main source as the dark figure of crime. Many also suggest other inconsistencies within official statistics to be influenced by various other factors from both the criminal justice system (i.e. police), society and communities. But whilst there is much research to suggest that criminal statistics

First before I start, it is important to know who is defined as a victim of crime. A victim of crime is a person who is harmed due to a criminal offence, like suffering physical or emotional harm, property damage, or economic loss as a result of a crime (Branch, L. S., 2017). Also can be a spouse, conjugal partner, relative of, or a person responsible for a victim who has passed away or is not capable to act or ‘preform’ for themselves for example a victim of child. As well as the person who harmed someone has not been prosecuted or convicted, but they have made a complaint to the police or Crown attorney (Antonacci, 2013). Due to the there are many reason that can have major effect on the victim like emotional, physical financial,

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.