AC1.6
There are two main methods used to measure the extent of crime by
criminologists; these include official statistics, this is police recorded crime
and the crime survey for England and Wales, a survey of victims of crime.
Official statistics include criminal statistics, sentencing statistics, and prison
statistics. In the year ending March 2024, there were 2,755 honour-based
abuse related offences recorded by police, this is an 8% decrease from the
previous year. In May 2023, changes were made to the home office counting
rule for conduct crimes, such as stalking and coercive + controlling
behaviour. This means the requirement to record two crimes when one of
them was conduct was removed. The crime survey for England and Wales
includes information on crimes that have not been reported to the police.
The survey is completed by a representative sample of around 52,000
people aged 16 or over each year, who are asked to complete a survey
relating to the crimes they have been victim to in the last 12 months. The
victim survey is where people living in private households are asked about
experiences of crime, attitudes, and perceptions in face-to-face interviews.
Purposes for official statistics, police recorded crime, include highlighting the
police workload, as well as informing resource management which may
impact the crimes the police prioritise. Additionally, official statistics shows
emergence of new crimes and provides information on a geographical basis.
The crime survey for England and Wales also provides important purposes
such as giving the public a voice. Some purposes that the crime survey and
the official statistics have in common are providing trends in offending as
well as allowing policy evaluation and development, additionally they both
enable the protection of potential victims.
Reliability is consistency of results when an experiment is replicated under
the same conditions, this is improved if the data is collected in scientific
conditions. Official statistics can be considered reliable as different officers
and different forces are expected to follow the same procedures. However, it
may be considered not reliable as it is possible for police officers to classify
the same incident differently, for example a simple argument between
partners may be classified as a domestic dispute. The crime survey is likely
to have high reliability because, it is conducted by trained interviewers
asking the same set of questions, likely having highly reliable results as a
persons answers are likely to be the same regardless of whos asking the
questions. However, it can be argued that the CSEW may not be reliable as
different interviewers might get different answers to the same questions, this
There are two main methods used to measure the extent of crime by
criminologists; these include official statistics, this is police recorded crime
and the crime survey for England and Wales, a survey of victims of crime.
Official statistics include criminal statistics, sentencing statistics, and prison
statistics. In the year ending March 2024, there were 2,755 honour-based
abuse related offences recorded by police, this is an 8% decrease from the
previous year. In May 2023, changes were made to the home office counting
rule for conduct crimes, such as stalking and coercive + controlling
behaviour. This means the requirement to record two crimes when one of
them was conduct was removed. The crime survey for England and Wales
includes information on crimes that have not been reported to the police.
The survey is completed by a representative sample of around 52,000
people aged 16 or over each year, who are asked to complete a survey
relating to the crimes they have been victim to in the last 12 months. The
victim survey is where people living in private households are asked about
experiences of crime, attitudes, and perceptions in face-to-face interviews.
Purposes for official statistics, police recorded crime, include highlighting the
police workload, as well as informing resource management which may
impact the crimes the police prioritise. Additionally, official statistics shows
emergence of new crimes and provides information on a geographical basis.
The crime survey for England and Wales also provides important purposes
such as giving the public a voice. Some purposes that the crime survey and
the official statistics have in common are providing trends in offending as
well as allowing policy evaluation and development, additionally they both
enable the protection of potential victims.
Reliability is consistency of results when an experiment is replicated under
the same conditions, this is improved if the data is collected in scientific
conditions. Official statistics can be considered reliable as different officers
and different forces are expected to follow the same procedures. However, it
may be considered not reliable as it is possible for police officers to classify
the same incident differently, for example a simple argument between
partners may be classified as a domestic dispute. The crime survey is likely
to have high reliability because, it is conducted by trained interviewers
asking the same set of questions, likely having highly reliable results as a
persons answers are likely to be the same regardless of whos asking the
questions. However, it can be argued that the CSEW may not be reliable as
different interviewers might get different answers to the same questions, this
