Crime and Deviance - Episode 2

Wales or the CSEW. We then have victim surveys and this includes the Crime Survey for England and Wales and localized victim surveys. And victim surveys are where a person indicates all the crimes that may have been committed against themselves during the last year. We then also have self report studies, which again are a survey conducted in which the person indicates or admits any crimes that they have committed over the course of the last year. These, of

course are anonymous. So firstly, let's just think about official crime statistics in general. Remember, for some sociologists positivists in particular, they see a real benefit of official crime statistics because they tend to be large scale macro often largely generalizable and representative, as they cover a large number of people. However, for many sociologists, in particular interpretivist sociologists, they see a

real weakness to official crime statistics. They say that statistics can lack depth, they can lack detail, they do not give validity or insight or the shtayan, and so there are many criticisms or problems of overall crime statistics. It's also worth mentioning, of course, that crime statistics only really show us a small fraction of the actual crime that's going on. It's estimated that crime stats actually only show

about ten percent of all crime. The rest of crime is what is known as the dark figure of crime. Or perhaps a better analogy is the iceberg theory. You imagine an iceberg. Only the tip of the iceberg tips out of the water. The rest is hidden underneath. So just try and remember that statistic that actually we probably only see a small percentage around ten percent of real crime. It could even be lower than that. So let's start with official crime statistics. Official crime statistics refer to any

data produced or collated by the government. They are collated by the Home Office and published by the Office for national statistics. They include both or either police statistics and court and prison records and the Crime Survey for England and Wales. These crime statistics are published every six months. So what are the advantages of the official crime statistics. Well, your two groups, functionists and right realists really really do

like the use of crime statistics. They uncritically accept the official crime statistics as a fair reflection of the problem of crime. They argue that police statistics are useful because they are widely geographically representative. Since they are supplied by forty five territorial police forces plus the British Transport Police. Most members of the public know the number nine ninety nine and can therefore report crimes either in person or

over the phone. This means that the sample reported to the police should theoretically include all ages, classes, genders, ethnicities and so on, so that the statistics produce reflect a huge data set and therefore can be used to generalize

across the UK. Functions and right realists also say that the reliability should be high, and reliability may be high for the police statistics because they are standardized thanks to high levels of training for police officers to make sure that crimes are recorded in the same way by all officers,

ensuring consistency. They also operationalize carefully. Each police force should have the same understanding of key concepts around enforcing the law, ensuring reliability e g. What constitute and assault, aggravated assault or manslaughter, etc. The statistics are also gathered every year and in the same way and again. This increases the reliability as they are collected again and again to see

emerging trends and patterns over time. Functions, of course, believe in the idea of consensus, so they see the polics representing all of us and do not question their motives. They therefore assume that what is reported and recorded is what they call a social fact, and so the figures reflect reality, meaning, according to functionists, there is high validity in these statistics. Functionists trust the police figures. They reject the suggestion that they are socially constructed. We know that

some crimes are highly likely to be reported. For example, if victims see some benefit to themselves, such as an insurance claim or a stolen car, they are going to report it. So the statistics for some crimes are likely to be higher in validity than others. Practically, police statistics are also easy to access and they've already been compiled.

Remember they are secondary data for a sociologist. The data is published and up to date, and so can be accessed by any member of the public via the Internet. According to these groups functioning some right realists, there are also few ethical worries as offenders and victims are not named and they remain anonymous. However, there are many disadvantages to police statistics. Interactions are highly critical of police statistics because they believe that they reflect only a narrow version

of reality, not the whole truth. They are incomplete because not all crimes are reported or recorded, and only certain people seem to get labeled as criminal. Therefore, interactionists suggest that police statistics lack validity because they do not reveal the dark figure of crime, or, as mentioned earlier, it does not account for the Iceberg theory. Siicarell found that police officers in his study were more likely to arrest and charge working class youth the middle class youths, even

though they carried out the same amount of crime. Thus, police statistics may have low validity because they reflect the labeling process rather than the actual crimes that are being carried out There are lots of instances where crimes go undetected and unreported, and this challenges the police statistics because many more crimes may exist, but they do not actually appear in the statistics in terms of what we're seeing

as the general public. The main reasons for this is because they've not been reported, they've not been recorded, or they've gone unpunished. So why might this happen? Where There are a variety of reasons as to why this may occur. Firstly, the victim may be unaware that a crime is being committed, such as if they were a victim of a financial fraud. People may not report crimes because they were some way involved.

Imagine if a person were a drug dealer themselves and their stash was stolen from them, are they really going to go to the police. Likewise, they may fear retaliation, particularly if they were a victim against a very dangerous individual or gang. It may be that the crimes perceived as too trivial or too small. Let's imagine that you had an old, rusty bike tied up outside your house and someone stole it. Perhaps you couldn't be bothered to let the police know because it's seen as far too

insignificant disadvantage. Communities are also less likely to have faith in the police and therefore are much less likely to report crimes, which arguably compacts the problem. Some groups just simply don't want to have any connection or relation with the police at all. Some people may also not report certain crimes, such as sexual offenses and domestic violence, because they're too embarrassed or they just simply don't want to report it. We know that those two offenses in particular

are massively underreported. And finally, maybe the person who's a victim may lack power. For example, a young child may be neglected or abused, but doesn't understand that they've had a crime committed against them, or may not have the ability to be able to report it to the police in the first place. One might assume that if a crime is reported to the police that they would obviously record every instance of this, but this isn't always the case.

The police are trained to be professional and use a discretion when appropriate. This means that officers may decide that a crime is too trivial and thus not record it as a crime. In twenty twenty, the hm Inspectra of Constabulary reported that in the Greater Manchester Police Force alone, around two hundred and twenty crimes a day when unrecorded. In the twelve month period reviewed by inspectors, it was estimated the force of recorded only seventy seven point seven

percent of reported crimes. This shows that police recorded practices can impact on the validity of crime statistics. In other words, they don't show a true picture, but also the reliability of the statistics because they're not being recorded in the same way each time. Simply, the recording of crime may also be different in different localities, for exact example, between the inner city areas and urban areas. Marxists reject police statistics.

The sociologist Gordon, for example, suggests that the bourgeoisie selectively enforce the law against the less powerful groups. Gordon argues that police officers are the strong arm of the bourgeoisie and so operate in ways which reflect the interests of the ruling class. As such, the police may choose to pursue people and groups they perceive to be a threat

to society and not others. Gordon suggests that the police are selective in the way in which they apply the law, choosing challenging members of the working class to prosecute and imprison to uphold the illusion of a perfect capitalist system. The research of Waddington also conductive research on what he

calls canteen culture. His research on canteen culture of the police also suggests that the police statistics are not to be trusted because they reflect the police stereotypes of who they believe to be typical criminals, which influence them to stop and search groups. This includes ethnic minorities, youths, men rather than women in the working class. This may also lead to a self fulfilling prophecy where the only people found to be committing these crimes are the groups who

are stopped and searched in the first place. Many criticize statistics therefore for lacking in validity because they fail to understand in any depth why something is happening or why a crime is being committed. Statistics are quantitative, and as a result, they may indicate that something is the case, but not the reasons why. Remember that feminists also prefer to use methods which focus much more on the victim,

offering a much more empathetic and qualitative approach. Although official crime statistics are formed mostly by figures from the police and courts. The government does supplement this with extra information an annual survey called the Crime Survey of England and Wales. Victim surveys are studies about the victims of crime, rather than offenders. Interviewers ask people if they have been a victim of crime in the last year and whether they

reported it to the police. Respondents are asked questions in their own homes by trained interviewers using a structured interview, with some questions administered on a laptop. Victim surveys reveal the dark figure of crime and the reasons why people may not have reported the crime committed against them to

the police in the first place. Positivists argue that the Crime Survey for England and Wales is high in representativeness because it uses a nationally representative sample a stratified random sampling technique of thirty five thousand adults and three thousand children aged between ten and fifteen with parental consent per year. The response rate, though, has fallen from around seventy percent pre pandemic to around forty two percent in twenty twenty three.

The information is collected by professional, trained interviewers and the interview is structured so that there is high reliability because the key terms are off operationalized clearly. Each interview we'll use the same questions phrased in the same way, and answers are coded. It can also be argued that this survey does produce some high validity because respondents are asked questions in their own home where they feel more comfortable.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales has been successful at developing special measures to estimate the extent of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual victimization, which are least likely to be reported crimes to the police. For these questions, the laptop is given to the respondent and they are asked to complete

in privacy to avoid embarrassment and thus raise validity. There are many disadvantages, however, of the Crime Survey of England and Wales, such as it very very rarely reflects white collar crimes, that's crimes committed by the middle and upper classes. Those with power. Marks Is such as Snyder, argue that by continually asking about issues such as street crime rather than white collar crimes, we reinforce the narrative that crime

is a working class issue. People may not be aware they are victims of crimes, and the crime Survey for England and Wales relies on victims to have objective knowledge of the crimes committed against them. People's memories of traumatic events are often not that accurate, or they may fail to remember all of the crimes they've actually experienced over the previous twelve months. As with police statistics, people may be embarrassed or fear reprisals, and so that data is

not entirely valid. In addition, victim surveys don't reveal victimless crimes such as underage drinking. The response rate, as already noted, is forty two percent, not one hundred percent, so some data has not been captured. Where's all that missing data gone? This means that representativeness may be lowered if not every person completes the survey. If those that don't respond are the people who have suffered any crimes, this distorts our view since we may not be able to generalize what's

actually occurring with data in relation to crime. Therefore, we do have real problems with potential validity, representativeness, and generalizability when it comes to the Crime Survey of England and Wales. Now let's be a little bit more specific to victim surveys. Some victim surveys can help uncover the wider impact of crime on a community. Left realists are particularly keen to focus on working class victims and to provide solutions to

cope with the crime. Jones carried out the Islington Crime Survey. This survey not only focuses on a specific geographical area that in his city, but also on the impact of crime on individuals, lives, and particularly vulnerable groups. The studies showed that a third of all households have been touched by serious crime in the last twelve months. Crime has rated a major problem behind unemployment. The qualitative element of

the survey unveiled that crime really altered people's lives. Twenty five percent of all people avoided going out after dark because of a fear of crime. Twenty eight percent said that they felt unsafe in their own homes. More than half of women stated that the fear of crime is real and rational, and that it is not an exaggeration to conclude that many women in inner city urban areas

live in a state of virtual curfew. These findings and victimization were influential in developing the theory of left realism. They led left realists to believe that crime and fear of crime, especially in inner city areas, is very important in shaping people's lives, and the official crime statistics alone doesn't truly reflect this fact and so needs to be

supplemented by victim surveys. The Islington Crime Survey also found that not everyone has the same likelihood of becoming a victim, since young household's, lone parents, and the unemployed were more than twice as likely to be a victim of crime as the average person. The poor were also more likely to be subject to multiple Victimization surveys can also be useful in testing the success of social policy initiatives. For example, Farrington and Painter use a victim survey to test where

their improved street lighting reduce crime rates. They sent victimization surveys to household a thousand in total before and after the new street lighting was installed. Respondents reported that they felt safer and this led to safer spaces because potential criminals feared being spotted. Victimization fell by forty three percent. Farrington and Painter point out that the importance of using a victimization survey helps reveal crimes such as receiving drugs,

which the police may not be aware of. This study shows the importance of using victim surveys rather than police statistics to reveal crime and fear of crime from a personal perspective. Feminists also favor victim surveys because they believe criminology should start with the victim, not the perpetrator. Feminists seek empathetic, in depth, qualitative data which reveals what it

feels like to be a victim. For example, do Bash and Dobash used two female researchers to carry out one hundred and nine structured interviews with women who had experienced domestic violence. Forty two of the women were living or had been living in a women's refuge. Dobash and Dobash found that twenty three percent of their sample actually experienced violence before their marriage, but believed it would cease once

they were married. The other seventy seven percent had not experienced before marriage, but did experience it once they were married. The first violent episode usually consisted of a single blow with little physical injury. It was often preceded by an argument, usually about the husband's possessiveness and his ideas about his wise responsibility to him. This episode was normally followed by shock, shame,

and guilt from both parties. The husband begged for forgiveness and promised it would not happen again, whilst wives often attempted to understand the action in terms of her own behavior, the idea that perhaps she brought it upon herself. Few females responded to the attack with physical force themselfs do Bash and Dobash found that such violence became routine and normal. They found that men felt they had the right to punish or discipline their wives for being bad wives or mothers.

Women too, expected domestic violence to be a normal part of their marriage and consequently rarely complained about it or sought medical attention. They left the relationship when children were threatened with violence, too feministy in depth data is much more valuable than statistics because it allows us to see how crime impacts on individuals and crime, and therefore gives us better validity. There are, of course, many problems with

smaller scale victim surveys and studies. Many victim surveys often use small samples, which of course reduces the generalizability. For example, in that dobashan day Obash study. They used a sample of women who were living in domestic violence hostels, and therefore they were not probably representative of women who may experience low levels of domestic violence, may not experience any domestic violence, or to the men who experienced domestic violence. Finally,

let's move on to self report studies. Remember this is an anonymous questionnaire, self completed, and it is where the person completing it admits to crimes that they've committed over a twelve year period. As well as being asked how often they commit illegal acts. Respondents are generally asked details

of their background, such as age, gender, or ethnicity. One of the advantages of self report studies is that they provide evidence against the typical delinquent, as shown in the crime rate Graham and Bowling conducting the self report study of twenty four hundred people aged fourteen to twenty five. They were interviewed in their own homes face to face, then completed as self completion questionnaire which used twenty three offenses, and are asked them to admit which, if any, they

had committed. Crime rates for blacks and whites were almost equal forty four percent for whites and forty three percent for blacks, only thirty for British Asians, and so this self report study was helpful in providing a more valid account of patterns of offending regarding ethnicity and perhaps reinforces the need for sociologists to be suspicious of the possibility

of police racism. Self report studies are useful as they can reveal hidden aspects of crime not picked up in the statistics, and this raises the validity in terms of gender. For example, Anne Campbell found that levels of crime and deviants admitted to by females and males were much closer than police recorded figures tended to suggest. The official crime statistics show that for every one crime committed by women, men commit five, so the ratio is one to five.

This shows that men are much more criminal than women. However, Campbell carried out small scale self report studies with their A level classes and found that for ever every one crime that women committed, men committed one point five, So the difference between crime rate of men and women is much closer than the official crime statistics suggests one to one point five. This backs up the idea of Pollock's chivalry theory. Perhaps females are committing crime, but they are

much less likely to be targeted, punished and reported. Self report studies may also be useful to see trends over time and track changes that Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime is one of the largest prospective longitudinal studies of youth offending ever carried out in the UK. It was first established in nineteen ninety eight and it began with a cohort of around four thousand, three hundred children aged twelve on average, who are all in their first

year of secondary school in the city of Edinburgh. The main aim of the study was to further increase our understanding of criminal behavior amongst young people by studying them over a long period of development from early adolescents through to adulthood. This is an example of a self report study and victim survey together so could be used to

answer both exam questions. The study found that children from single parent families and those in care to have the highest levels of criminality, showing that crime rates rise as you go down through the social class scale. Boys were twice as criminal as girls, and crime rates were higher when parents were unemployed. They found correlations between impulsivity in children who had high levels of criminality were also more likely to be victims. They found lower offending rates for

those youths who were closely supervised by parents. The strongest correlation was between offending rates and the use of alcohol or drugs and friends who were also offenders. There are, however, many problems with self report studies. Feminists would criticize them for failing to highlight the way in which women are

treated differently by the criminal justice system. Self report studies failed to highlight the victimization that women suffer, and therefore they would suggest that victimization studies are much more effective. According to feminists, these will reveal the level of victimization that women suffer in relation to sexual and domestic violence,

which can often be lost in self report studies. Self report studies are often carried out on young adults and often include quite minor crimes, meaning they do not represent the older population and cannot be generalized across other groups. They also tend to be unrepresentative because they focus on relatively small groups of people, as we found in Campbell's research, and or particular types of crimes. They do not include sexual crimes, domestic violence, and white collar crimes or murder.

Participants may also conceal offending or make false claims about what they have done even though they are anonymous, because they may have a mistrust of the police. So, therefore, do we know that we're still getting accurate and high levels of validity from self report studies? In conclusion, it may be best to use what we call method pluralism when we're trying to understand crime, and this means the

truly measure crime. We should use official crime statistics, self report surveys, and victim surveys altogether to offer a much broader picture rather than just relying on one method alone. So, from listening to this episode, could you answer the following questions. Firsty, can you name the three different ways in which crime is measured in the UK? Can you also name three examples of studies that use victim surveys as their research method.

Could you name three studies that use self report studies as their research method? Imagine you had an essay on one of these. Could you name two advantages and two disadvantages of official crime statistics? Could you name two advantages and two disadvantages of victim surveys? And finally, could you date two advantages and two disadvantages of victim studies. Thank you very much for listening, and in episode three we are going to look at the functionist explanations for crime

and deviants. The Sociology Show podcast now offers online tutoring. Whether you want a single session or a regular slot, then you can book up depending on your needs. You can book a one hour, one and a half hour, or two hour slot by simply visiting www dot calendly dot com Forward slash Sociology Show Tutoring. That's c a l e n d l y dot com. Forward slash Sociology Show Tutoring. Thank you for your continued support of the show.