Official criminal statistics have always been found as unable to become an accurate measure of the extent and seriousness of crime. With all the different hidden types, along with many classifications and perspectives of crime, it is literally impossible to construct a method to collate all this information and publish it annually as statistics. "The mere fact that an incident is reported to the police (even one which, on the surface at least, appears to qualify as a crime) does not ensure that it will be recorded as a crime" (Coleman and Moynihan, 1996:34).
Issues such as the history of recorded crime and patterns and associations of crime are important regarding crime statistics. Though brought across to convey the retrospective of the extent and seriousness of crime will be the views and opinions of official crime statistics. How crime is recorded through self-report studies and victim surveys will also be discussed.
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Coleman GravesiteAlso I conducted a case study through interviewing three police officers on official crime statistics; this will be referred to throughout.
From square one recorded crime has been notified as to how they are used and collated, "Despite the warnings of criminologists and government statisticians alike, these statistics are still treated by many politicians and journalists as an accurate 'barometer' of crime" (Maguire et al, 2003:334).
Official criminal statistics are too concentrated on specific crimes through many means of influence. Media plays a big part in this as newspapers, television, film, literature etc. bring specific crimes into the spotlight concentrating on crimes that the public want stamped out due to the socialisation of their society. Emile Durkheim states you are educated into a society and its norms and values. For example a lot of attention is put towards women being mugged where actually "Men are victims in 64 per...