Taking A Look At Crime Statistics

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When we look at crime statistics there are two ways of collecting data; these are quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research methods look at crime on a macro scale while qualitative research methods look at crime on a micro scale. Macro will look at the nation as a whole while micro will look at the individual. Selecting what method to use will depend on the criminologist’s theoretical perspective. Positivists prefer using quantitative data to look at crime. Their view is that everyone is shaped by society and their position in the social hierarchy. They do research to find out what governs our behaviour. Positivists will use official statistics such as police-recorded crime, the crime survey for England and Wales and the Youth Lifestyles …show more content…

Positivists like official statistics because they are reliable and they give us a good overview of crime in society; which makes it easy for us to compare crime rates across different regions. Interpretivists prefer qualitative data. They argue that official statistics give us a false impression of crime in our society. They say that official police statistics and the British crime survey are socially constructed. The general public select what crimes they report and then the police selectively record them. Crime statistics may also reflect the bias of the police. For example, if the police think that young people are more likely to commit crime, they may over-police the young and therefore uncover more crime committed by them. Interpretivists like research methods such as unstructured interviews and participant observation. This is because they give us an in-depth insight in to the lives of criminals. They also give us an empathetic understanding between the researcher and the …show more content…

Police crime figures are official statistics that are recorded and published annually in Britain since 1857. They’re easy to access, can identify trends and patterns and show the social background of criminals. For 100 years, they were seen as an accurate record of crime, but now they are questioned as to how reliable they really are. First off, official police records only report crimes that are known to the police. Not all crime is reported to the police for a number of reasons. Individuals don’t report crime if they don’t have faith in the police to investigate and solve it. Crime also won’t be reported to the police if the victim is intimidated by the person who committed that crime. Many communities have gangs of criminals who threaten anyone who reports their crimes, including witnesses. Another reason is for example, is that a lot of sexual crime is not reported because of embarrassment, fear and shock for the victim. And some victims see the crime committed against them as trivial – or fear the police will see it as trivial. Another reason why police crime figures don’t always show the full extent of crime is that the police don’t always record all the crime that is reported to them. Police officers decide whether or not an incident is worth reporting or not such as if there is enough evidence to say a crime has been committed or if the incident is

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