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The Official Statistics Debate

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a burglary in the home once every forty years. This glosses over the fact that some people are considerably more at risk than others. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: The Official Statistics Debate


1
The Official Statistics Debate
  • Relevant names and issues to mention in your
    essay work.

2
Who gathers statistics?
  • The government gathers statistics from the
    police.
  • It commissions research projects from university
    researchers and teachers.
  • Other agencies concerned with crime gather
    statistics.

3
Statistics a social construction
  • Statistics may appear to be facts.
  • However, statistics are not fully reliable as
    they are socially constructed by the people who
    gather the data.

4
What do statistics measure?
  • Statistics measure crimes.
  • Crimes are socially defined, what is a crime will
    vary according to changes in norms, values and
    mores.
  • Things are made criminal, and they are legalised
    as society changes.

5
The case of domestic violence
  • There are more reported cases of domestic
    violence than in the 1970s.
  • Is there more violence?
  • Probably not the police did not act on reports
    of domestic violence and many women regarded
    violence as a normal part of marriage.

6
Jock Young
  • Jock Young (1994) pointed out that laws have been
    created, often quickly and without forethought,
    in response to moral panics or to political
    events.
  • Examples include various laws against terrorism

7
Stephen Moore
  • Stephen Moore points out that the police play a
    very significant part in the social construction
    of crime and deviance because it is they who
    record reported crimes.

8
Atkinson
  • Atkinson criticised Durkheims study of Suicide.
  • He said that Coroners create a definition of a
    typical suicide and then categorise individual
    deaths according to that social construction.

9
Frances Heidensohn
  • Heidensohn says that the police have a powerful
    canteen culture, which has elements of
    masculinism, authoritarianism, intolerance of
    ethnic minorities, a desire for excitement and
    strong notions of law enforcement.
  • They will therefore categorise acts as criminal
    on the basis of these perceptions

10
Howard Becker
  • Becker pointed out that delinquent boys were less
    likely to be charged if they behaved with a
    sufficiently cooperative and pleasant manner and
    if they were seen as basically good than if
    they were aggressive or hostile.

11
How do we know about crime?
  • Official Statistics
  • Victim Studies
  • Self Report Studies

12
Official Statistics
  • Tell us about patterns of reporting, recording
    and conviction.
  • We learn about public and police practice.
  • They give us a base line from which to work.

13
Victim studies
  • The best known is the biennial British Crime
    Survey.
  • This is available on-line.
  • Adults from a large sample report which crimes
    they have experienced.
  • They also report which crimes they have told the
    police about this is usually less than half the
    crime experienced.

14
The British Crime Survey
  • The statistically average person aged 16 or over
    can expect
  •  a robbery once every five centuries (not
    attempts)
  • an asssault resulting in injury (even if slight)
    once every century
  • a family car to be stolen or taken by once every
    60 years
  • a burglary in the home once every forty years
  • This glosses over the fact that some people are
    considerably more at risk than others.

15
The Islington Crime Survey
  • Conducted by Jones et al (1986)
  • Islington is the seventh most deprived area in
    England).
  • The researchers found higher levels of
    victimisation and multiple victimisation amongst
    women, ethnic minorities and the poor.
  • Burglary, robbery, or sexual assault had touched
    a third of all households within the last twelve
    months.

16
Feminists and victim studies
  • Feminist researchers such as Hanmer and Saunders
    1984, Hall 1985 suggest levels of sexual crime
    against women are far higher that those revealed
    by national victim surveys and infinitely higher
    that those indicated by police records.

17
Fear of crime
  • The British Crime Survey shows that older women
    tend to be the most afraid.
  • Younger men - who are most likely to end up
    victim in a violent or criminal incident on the
    street - are the least likely to admit fear.
  • However the repercussions for older people may be
    more serious if a crime is committed.

18
Self Report studies
  • Ordinary people are asked what crimes they have
    committed.
  • These reveal high levels of petty criminality.
  • They tend to focus on minor misdemeanours rather
    than serious acts of deviance.

19
The end
  • If you have any ideas for improvement, please see
    Mrs Griffiths
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