How do criminal justice professionals measure crime? What are their methods?
What, in your opinion are the strengths and weakness of each of these methods and
why?
Criminal justice professionals measure crime with three different methods: Official criminal
statistics, victim surveys, and self-report studies.
Official criminal statistics
Official criminal statistics measure crime and crime control. Clearly, the historically
preferred source of official statistics on the extent and nature of crime is police data,
particularly crimes known to the police.
There are two types of official criminal statistics: statistics recorded by police, and
statistics about people who have been convicted.
Official criminal statistics are recorded by the police and published by the Home
Office each year.
Sociologists use these statistics as secondary forms of data.
Strengths
Useful in identifying trends in recorded crime over time.
Useful in identifying trends in particular crimes over time - has violent crime gone up
or down
Cheap, easily available
Published annually
Cover most of the population
Easy to compare, contrast etc.
High in reliability
No ethical problems or safety problems in using them to research crime
Contemporary data
Collected in a standardized, systematic, scientific way
Reliable as can be easily checked and verified
Allows for comparisons between groups
Few ethical issues as no direct contact with criminals
Weaknesses
Official statistics only measure crime.
They do not and cannot measure deviance.
Open to political abuse, parties pick best figures to support their argument.
Unable to infer human stories underpinning crimes/don't know reasons why
May be based on operational definitions sociologists don't agree with
Does not show complete picture as doesn't break down statistics
Victim surveys
What, in your opinion are the strengths and weakness of each of these methods and
why?
Criminal justice professionals measure crime with three different methods: Official criminal
statistics, victim surveys, and self-report studies.
Official criminal statistics
Official criminal statistics measure crime and crime control. Clearly, the historically
preferred source of official statistics on the extent and nature of crime is police data,
particularly crimes known to the police.
There are two types of official criminal statistics: statistics recorded by police, and
statistics about people who have been convicted.
Official criminal statistics are recorded by the police and published by the Home
Office each year.
Sociologists use these statistics as secondary forms of data.
Strengths
Useful in identifying trends in recorded crime over time.
Useful in identifying trends in particular crimes over time - has violent crime gone up
or down
Cheap, easily available
Published annually
Cover most of the population
Easy to compare, contrast etc.
High in reliability
No ethical problems or safety problems in using them to research crime
Contemporary data
Collected in a standardized, systematic, scientific way
Reliable as can be easily checked and verified
Allows for comparisons between groups
Few ethical issues as no direct contact with criminals
Weaknesses
Official statistics only measure crime.
They do not and cannot measure deviance.
Open to political abuse, parties pick best figures to support their argument.
Unable to infer human stories underpinning crimes/don't know reasons why
May be based on operational definitions sociologists don't agree with
Does not show complete picture as doesn't break down statistics
Victim surveys
