Assess The Importance Of Measurement And Accuracy Of Crime Measurement In The Uk

The following essay considers one of the most important topics of crime levels and accuracy of crime measurement in United Kingdom. Particularly, we will examine the main techniques to measure or estimate crime and what their strengths and weaknesses are considered to be. Moreover, we will be debating and comparing merits of both official or recorder crime statistics, victimisation surveys. To begin with, there are two main methods of measuring and tracking trends in crime. One is taken from data collected routinely taken by law enforcement agencies and concerns crimes reported by the public or otherwise coming to the attention of the authorities. Especially in England and Wales such datas are collected by the police and referred to as recorded

Relatively, a large proportion minor misdemeanours that would be trialled as summary offences in court such as, crimes relating to anti-social behaviour, assault, along with most either-way offences for example theft and drug offences are excluded from being recorded. It outlines the main failings of the form of data collection and shows the strength of crime surveys. Another advantage associated with the use of crime survey is BCS is constantly altering to match to modern concerns of society. The recent research approves that crimes committed against minors such as ‘gadget theft’ has seen a vast increase as technology advances. Although, there is an increase in crime statistics, essentially, they are not reported due to sensitive nature of people for example, who was the victim of racially incited or homophobic hate crimes, which they may not have wanted to report. In addition, may be due to shame, embarrassment, a fear of repercussions or not being believed or taken seriously by the police service. Some methods of surveying may reach a wide proportion of people as reporters may ask to keep their statements either anonymous or private. Practicably, this may motivate people to share their experiments and concerns bravely, where interviews even can be taken at home by visiting door to door or over the telephone. All in all, compare with police records BCS

First of all, there is a range of crimes not effective captured by such surveys. The research done by Kershaw and colleagues (2001) approves that, three-quarters if the offences covered by the BCS can be used in comparison with the official statistics. Likewise, there is much captured,albeit partially, in official data sets that is not covered by the BCS including, for instance, shoplifting and burglary from commercial premises, as well as motoring offences and “victimless” crimes. According to Maguire’s (2002) research BCS provdes an alternative, rather than a directly comparable, overall picture of crime to that offered by police statistics. Another convincing point against the crime surveys is that, surveys don’t include those that are in institutions such as prisons, hospitals,care homes,students halls of residence etc. Relatively, the reports taken by responsible people does not reflect the common view of people from different social groups,which shows the failure of survey in their aim since they attempted to interview people who are representatives of society.Furthermore,answers may also be affected by exaggeration or forgetfulness on behalf of the respondent. In other words, there are limits to the accuracy of respondents’ memories. Therefore, the effectiveness of survey is questionable as the results gathered rely on a person’s honesty and personal insight in to how they have been