A set of statistics produced from information accumulated by the government, the police, the courts or other authority associations. official statistics Can be utilised to compare different sorts of crime and how figures change in various years. Often utilised as secondary data in social research. If a crime is watched and recognized as a crime, the police might be notified. Be that as it may, if the crime has not been recognized it can’t be disclosed to the police and therefore can’t be incorporated into official statistics. Numerous crimes happen however they go unrecorded. There are many reasons as to why not all victims choose to report their crimes. Examples of this are; the victim may be too scared of the consequence, they could be embarrassed, they may be being black mailed, the victim suffered no loss or even that they are a criminal themselves and trying to keep a low profile. You also have the crimes that are dealt with by a fine or a penalty rather than a prosecution, benefit fraud being one. A British crime survey is a tool used annually, to measure the number of crime within England and Wales, this is done by asking members of the public about their personal experiences with crime. It fails to include thefts from shops, or fraud along with victimless crimes. Self-report surveys are used to encourage the general public to admit to crimes they have committed but were not caught. With all surveys there is a risk that people may lie, however the bonus is it may well expose the hidden figure of crime. Regardless of victim surveys being unnamed it appears that individuals still want to under-report sexual offenses. A risk you have is also the victim’s memory may be biased if they hold a grudge for example so the crime may be deceptive.
Understand different explanations for the social distribution of crime.
Analyse current data on the social distribution of crime with reference to at least two social factors.
There is a distinct correlation between the type of crime and social class. Crimes involving violence such as theft from a property are usually committed by the working class. The middle class tend to commit fraud and money laundering, whereas the majority of upper class crimes involve environmental crimes.
