Criminology
Unit 1
AC1.3
Assessment criteria Content Amplification
Explain the consequences of Consequences • ripple effect • cultural Learners should have an
unreported crime • decriminalisation • police understanding of the positive and
prioritisation • unrecorded crime • negative effects of unreported
cultural change • legal change • crime on the individual and on
procedural change society.
RIPPLE EFFECT
A ripple effect describes how the impact of crime can spread beyond the immediate victim throughout their family,
friends and community. In other words, it ripples out much wider than the initial victims.
Consider the offence of domestic abuse and the number of people this could affect. Abusers are often abused as
children, or have witnessed the abuse of parents as children. If this goes unreported it can appear that it is
acceptable, or children are socialised into this behaviour, which goes unpunished and the repeats as adults, causing
a ripple effect. It can also affect other family members or neighbours who might hear the abuse, friends and work
colleagues can also be affected.
CULTURAL
Sometimes there are cultural differences that make actions criminal in one country and not another. Cultural
differences may mean that crimes are unreported or not recognised. It can be difficult to understand cultures that
are very different from our own. Often people will ignore or turn a blind eye to actions or customs that are alien to
ours. They may feel it is not their place to interfere and therefore criminals and potential criminals may believe they
can proceed without consequences.
Female genital mutilation is illegal in the UK but culturally, there are some communities who believe it is an
acceptable thing to do. Similarly, with honour killing, while alien to Western society there are many cultures that
believe it is appropriate to take such drastic action.
Case study
KRISTY BAMU
The case of Kristy Bamu saw a 15 year old boy being accused of involvement in witchcraft and then killed by
members of his own family. The family were originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where witchcraft or
Kindoki is practised and exorcisms are carried out in some churches. Kristy was tortured over the course of several
days before being drowned in a bath during an exorcism.
1
,Task:
While watching the following documentary, take notes that amplify the case study of Kristy Bamu – an example of
cultural reasons for crime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAzxkp1nJj0
DECRIMINALISATION
Laws are frequently altered because they cannot be imposed or enforced. For example, the use of cannabis can be
quite open in some places in the UK, because the police choose to act. Eventually, the government has little choice
but to decriminalise such offences because it has to accept that the criminal act cannot be controlled because
people no longer take notice of the law. When crimes go unreported, often it is due to the lack of public concern and
interest, or because it is seen as a victimless crime. This includes:
Drugs
Prostitution
Illegal downloads
Such actions are common, widespread crimes that people do not see as real offences so publically they become
decriminalised. Although there are still laws against them, the punishments have been reduced, and less time and
money are spent trying to find perpetrators of these crimes. In some cases these offences are even legalised.
Eventually, the government has little choice over what can and cannot be controlled. They have no choice but to
decriminalise some actions because they have to accept that people do not take notice of the law anymore/.
Task:
Watch the following documentary and answer these questions:
1. Before decriminalisation, how did the law and wider society treat gay men?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Why would their crimes have been reported and recorded?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
3. What change was made to the law relating to homosexuality?
POLICE PRIORITISATION
The police often prioritise certain cries, ensuring that issues in a local area rea addressed. This means that some
crimes are not prioritised or are jot investigated. For instance, in recent years there has been a rise in the number of
sexual abuse cases, historic offences and reported domestic assault. The police have responded to the public’s
expectation for these crimes to be investigated. However, given the cost ofboth time and money on such
investigations, the police do not have the time to respond to all crime, or capacity. Hence, some offences go
unreported, as the public feel the police do not have the time due to prioritisation. Alternatively, a swifter
2
,punishment may be dispensed such as a caution rather than a court case. The police in County Durham have
indicated that they will no longer actively pursue smokers and small scale cannabis growers in order to prioritise
their resources against more serious crime. Ron Hogg, the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner, in 2015 stated
that this was to reduce costs and keep users out of the criminal justice system so they could focus on organised
crime and gang crime. Hate crime, especially if it is carried out on social media, is currently a crime requiring police
prioritisation.
Review:
Research Operation Yewtree from 2015, which started with the uncovering of Jimmy Saville. Answer the following
questions on your desks:
1) Why would a TV documentary lead to members of the public coming forward to report crime?
2) Why would cases involving celebrities gain greater media coverage?
3) How might police priorities be changed when the media reported cases of historical child sexual abuse ?
A new priority - social media hate crime
Hate crime has recently been a priority of the police. In 2016 a new unit was created in London’s Metropolitan Police
Force to investigate hate speech online. As part of a funded two year project the unit will be responsible for the
filtering and identification of hate crimes online, before informing regional police forces which will take action
against crimes committed online.
UNRECORDED CRIME
Unrecorded crime involves crimes that are reported to the police but are not recorded by them as offences. This
means an investigation into the alleged crime is unlikely to happen and the offender will not be punished or other
crimes prevented. Clearly, the more serious these offences are, the more serious the consequences could be.
Task:
1) To support your comments on the above, research unrecorded crime and use the statistics on different
police-force areas in your controlled assessment. This will help develop and add detail to your work.
The dark figure of crime
If the police do not record a crime, it will not appear in the police statistics. These unrecorded crimes are known as
the dark figure of crime. This is all the other crime – including the crimes no-one has witnessed, crimes that were
witnessed but not reported, and crimes that were reported to the police but not recorded by them. The absence of
unrecorded crime from the OCS means that the government and the CJS get a distorted picture of the patterns of
crime in the country, leading them to focus only on the types of crime that appear important from the statistics
while neglecting others that may be more serious.
2) Working with a partner, use the link below to search for crime in each of your local postcode areas.
https://www.police.uk/search/?next=policing%3Aforce%3Apcc%3Aindex
o What crimes, and how many of each, have been committed in your two areas in the last month?
Compare the two areas and note down similarities and differences.
o Click on the crimes and find out the status of the investigation. For example, have the offenders
been caught? Are there any differences between the two areas?
o Now look at stop and search in your two areas. Find five stop and searches for each area and note
the following:
a. Object of search
3
, b. Age
c. Gender
d. Ethnicity
o Compare the data for the two areas. Are there any similarities? B. From the data you have gathered
on the two areas, write a brief summary of the findings. How successful are the police in your two
areas? What crimes are the police looking for with stop and search and are they successful?
CULTURAL CHANGE
Within our own communities it may become the culture for crimes to be committed. Crime becomes a natural
consequence of a culture shift, almost a way of life. For instance, illegal video streaming, from sports and movie
channels regularly takes place. Within a community many people may not see this as a crime, so it is not reported
and hence becomes acceptable. When an area becomes run-down, for example properties have been vandalised or
poverty turns people to petty crimes such as drug use or prostitution, the culture of the area can grow worse and
more crimes are committed because no-one is reporting them so no-one is punished, This can lead to worse crimes
such as drug dealing, rape and murder. If the area is cleaned up and smaller crimes are reported and properly dealt
with, crime rates in the area will go down.
Take it further:
Broken windows theory:
Wilson and Kelling proposed the broken windows theory, which states that unchecked and unreported minor crime
leads to further and more serious crime, for example an uncared for area of a town begins to act as a magnet for
delinquent behaviour. Thus, they claimed that all crime should be tackled to avoid proliferation of further crime.
What do you think? Does this theory make sense and if so, why?
LEGAL CHANGE
Crimes may go unreported for a long time because they are perceived as human rights. For example, homosexuality
was illegal within the UK for many years. As the stigma towards homosexuality reduced, legal changes have been
made e.g. same sex marriage was legalised in 2015. Similarly, there has been substantial legal change towards the
smoking of cigarettes. At one stage smoking cigarettes was glamorised in the movies and even encouraged by the
medical profession. However, as medical knowledge in this area has improved the risks of smoking prompted
change. In 2007 smoking in enclosed public spaces became illegal and in 2015 it became illegal to smoke in a car with
anyone under the age of 18. These were positive consequences from legal change.
PROCEDURAL CHANGE
The actual procedural way of reporting crime has developed over the years to encourage reporting to take place.
Traditionally, visiting the police station or in an emergency, phoning 999 were common methods of reporting a
crime. Now other procedures have been introduced to report crime to the police. Some groups such as victim
support can help people report offences. It is even possible to report crime anonymously through crime stoppers.
There are specialised teams of police that deal with certain crimes such as hate crime, terrorism, fraud or anti-social
behaviour. There are also several apps that can be downloaded to a mobile phone to allow quick access to the
4
Unit 1
AC1.3
Assessment criteria Content Amplification
Explain the consequences of Consequences • ripple effect • cultural Learners should have an
unreported crime • decriminalisation • police understanding of the positive and
prioritisation • unrecorded crime • negative effects of unreported
cultural change • legal change • crime on the individual and on
procedural change society.
RIPPLE EFFECT
A ripple effect describes how the impact of crime can spread beyond the immediate victim throughout their family,
friends and community. In other words, it ripples out much wider than the initial victims.
Consider the offence of domestic abuse and the number of people this could affect. Abusers are often abused as
children, or have witnessed the abuse of parents as children. If this goes unreported it can appear that it is
acceptable, or children are socialised into this behaviour, which goes unpunished and the repeats as adults, causing
a ripple effect. It can also affect other family members or neighbours who might hear the abuse, friends and work
colleagues can also be affected.
CULTURAL
Sometimes there are cultural differences that make actions criminal in one country and not another. Cultural
differences may mean that crimes are unreported or not recognised. It can be difficult to understand cultures that
are very different from our own. Often people will ignore or turn a blind eye to actions or customs that are alien to
ours. They may feel it is not their place to interfere and therefore criminals and potential criminals may believe they
can proceed without consequences.
Female genital mutilation is illegal in the UK but culturally, there are some communities who believe it is an
acceptable thing to do. Similarly, with honour killing, while alien to Western society there are many cultures that
believe it is appropriate to take such drastic action.
Case study
KRISTY BAMU
The case of Kristy Bamu saw a 15 year old boy being accused of involvement in witchcraft and then killed by
members of his own family. The family were originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where witchcraft or
Kindoki is practised and exorcisms are carried out in some churches. Kristy was tortured over the course of several
days before being drowned in a bath during an exorcism.
1
,Task:
While watching the following documentary, take notes that amplify the case study of Kristy Bamu – an example of
cultural reasons for crime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAzxkp1nJj0
DECRIMINALISATION
Laws are frequently altered because they cannot be imposed or enforced. For example, the use of cannabis can be
quite open in some places in the UK, because the police choose to act. Eventually, the government has little choice
but to decriminalise such offences because it has to accept that the criminal act cannot be controlled because
people no longer take notice of the law. When crimes go unreported, often it is due to the lack of public concern and
interest, or because it is seen as a victimless crime. This includes:
Drugs
Prostitution
Illegal downloads
Such actions are common, widespread crimes that people do not see as real offences so publically they become
decriminalised. Although there are still laws against them, the punishments have been reduced, and less time and
money are spent trying to find perpetrators of these crimes. In some cases these offences are even legalised.
Eventually, the government has little choice over what can and cannot be controlled. They have no choice but to
decriminalise some actions because they have to accept that people do not take notice of the law anymore/.
Task:
Watch the following documentary and answer these questions:
1. Before decriminalisation, how did the law and wider society treat gay men?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Why would their crimes have been reported and recorded?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
3. What change was made to the law relating to homosexuality?
POLICE PRIORITISATION
The police often prioritise certain cries, ensuring that issues in a local area rea addressed. This means that some
crimes are not prioritised or are jot investigated. For instance, in recent years there has been a rise in the number of
sexual abuse cases, historic offences and reported domestic assault. The police have responded to the public’s
expectation for these crimes to be investigated. However, given the cost ofboth time and money on such
investigations, the police do not have the time to respond to all crime, or capacity. Hence, some offences go
unreported, as the public feel the police do not have the time due to prioritisation. Alternatively, a swifter
2
,punishment may be dispensed such as a caution rather than a court case. The police in County Durham have
indicated that they will no longer actively pursue smokers and small scale cannabis growers in order to prioritise
their resources against more serious crime. Ron Hogg, the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner, in 2015 stated
that this was to reduce costs and keep users out of the criminal justice system so they could focus on organised
crime and gang crime. Hate crime, especially if it is carried out on social media, is currently a crime requiring police
prioritisation.
Review:
Research Operation Yewtree from 2015, which started with the uncovering of Jimmy Saville. Answer the following
questions on your desks:
1) Why would a TV documentary lead to members of the public coming forward to report crime?
2) Why would cases involving celebrities gain greater media coverage?
3) How might police priorities be changed when the media reported cases of historical child sexual abuse ?
A new priority - social media hate crime
Hate crime has recently been a priority of the police. In 2016 a new unit was created in London’s Metropolitan Police
Force to investigate hate speech online. As part of a funded two year project the unit will be responsible for the
filtering and identification of hate crimes online, before informing regional police forces which will take action
against crimes committed online.
UNRECORDED CRIME
Unrecorded crime involves crimes that are reported to the police but are not recorded by them as offences. This
means an investigation into the alleged crime is unlikely to happen and the offender will not be punished or other
crimes prevented. Clearly, the more serious these offences are, the more serious the consequences could be.
Task:
1) To support your comments on the above, research unrecorded crime and use the statistics on different
police-force areas in your controlled assessment. This will help develop and add detail to your work.
The dark figure of crime
If the police do not record a crime, it will not appear in the police statistics. These unrecorded crimes are known as
the dark figure of crime. This is all the other crime – including the crimes no-one has witnessed, crimes that were
witnessed but not reported, and crimes that were reported to the police but not recorded by them. The absence of
unrecorded crime from the OCS means that the government and the CJS get a distorted picture of the patterns of
crime in the country, leading them to focus only on the types of crime that appear important from the statistics
while neglecting others that may be more serious.
2) Working with a partner, use the link below to search for crime in each of your local postcode areas.
https://www.police.uk/search/?next=policing%3Aforce%3Apcc%3Aindex
o What crimes, and how many of each, have been committed in your two areas in the last month?
Compare the two areas and note down similarities and differences.
o Click on the crimes and find out the status of the investigation. For example, have the offenders
been caught? Are there any differences between the two areas?
o Now look at stop and search in your two areas. Find five stop and searches for each area and note
the following:
a. Object of search
3
, b. Age
c. Gender
d. Ethnicity
o Compare the data for the two areas. Are there any similarities? B. From the data you have gathered
on the two areas, write a brief summary of the findings. How successful are the police in your two
areas? What crimes are the police looking for with stop and search and are they successful?
CULTURAL CHANGE
Within our own communities it may become the culture for crimes to be committed. Crime becomes a natural
consequence of a culture shift, almost a way of life. For instance, illegal video streaming, from sports and movie
channels regularly takes place. Within a community many people may not see this as a crime, so it is not reported
and hence becomes acceptable. When an area becomes run-down, for example properties have been vandalised or
poverty turns people to petty crimes such as drug use or prostitution, the culture of the area can grow worse and
more crimes are committed because no-one is reporting them so no-one is punished, This can lead to worse crimes
such as drug dealing, rape and murder. If the area is cleaned up and smaller crimes are reported and properly dealt
with, crime rates in the area will go down.
Take it further:
Broken windows theory:
Wilson and Kelling proposed the broken windows theory, which states that unchecked and unreported minor crime
leads to further and more serious crime, for example an uncared for area of a town begins to act as a magnet for
delinquent behaviour. Thus, they claimed that all crime should be tackled to avoid proliferation of further crime.
What do you think? Does this theory make sense and if so, why?
LEGAL CHANGE
Crimes may go unreported for a long time because they are perceived as human rights. For example, homosexuality
was illegal within the UK for many years. As the stigma towards homosexuality reduced, legal changes have been
made e.g. same sex marriage was legalised in 2015. Similarly, there has been substantial legal change towards the
smoking of cigarettes. At one stage smoking cigarettes was glamorised in the movies and even encouraged by the
medical profession. However, as medical knowledge in this area has improved the risks of smoking prompted
change. In 2007 smoking in enclosed public spaces became illegal and in 2015 it became illegal to smoke in a car with
anyone under the age of 18. These were positive consequences from legal change.
PROCEDURAL CHANGE
The actual procedural way of reporting crime has developed over the years to encourage reporting to take place.
Traditionally, visiting the police station or in an emergency, phoning 999 were common methods of reporting a
crime. Now other procedures have been introduced to report crime to the police. Some groups such as victim
support can help people report offences. It is even possible to report crime anonymously through crime stoppers.
There are specialised teams of police that deal with certain crimes such as hate crime, terrorism, fraud or anti-social
behaviour. There are also several apps that can be downloaded to a mobile phone to allow quick access to the
4
