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The Dark Figure Of Crime: The National Crime Victimisation Survey

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Introduction -

In this essay, the topic of ‘the dark figure of crime’ is explored through the National Crime Victimisation Survey and aims to elaborate on how such measurements do not aid in reducing the dark figure. The dark figure of crime is defined as ‘the volume of unrecorded or undetected crimes’ (ABS, 2004; Coleman & Moynihan, 1996) which criminologists and the government have spent years investigating through the methodology of the National Crime Victimisation Survey that helps measures the type of crime that individuals face. These crimes are commonly cybercrimes (identity theft, property crimes, phishing) and traditional crimes, including physical assault, burglary, sexual assault and motor thefts.

How is the dark figure of crime …show more content…

Other mechanisms involve the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and other major data collection bureaus such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) which contribute to the measurement of the dark figure of crime. The NCVS is a tool adapted from the International Crimes Victim Survey that is fundamentally used in 13 countries (Van Dijk, 2015), not only does it enable individuals to report crimes that may not be officially recorded (Lurigio and Staton, 2020) through a series of questionnaires that help the police in understanding the volume of crime that exists. The UCR is yet another tool created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to effectively synthesise and gather information on crime collected by the police (Lurigio and Staton, …show more content…

While there are many advantages to using such tools to measure dark figures, one advantage is that individuals are able to share their experiences whilst having anonymity and having their privacy protected. However, such tools are considered complex and formidable as it is dependent on the victims to interpret what is considered a crime and whether they wish to share such information (Block and Block, 1984). A study conducted by (Van Dijk, 2015) illustrates the two major downsides when it comes to such survey-based measurement tools, focusing mainly on the National Crime Victimisation Survey as it does not have the ability to compare dark figure crimes across the globe as it is quite a country-specific tool. Furthermore, this problem can be applied to all measurement tools that are used by different countries such as Australia and the Australian Bureau of Statistics or America with their Uniform Crime Report. The second downside of utilising such tools is that it does not take into consideration of other factors such as individuals’ experiences with the police (Van Dijk, 2015) which can lead to many crimes being unreported due to a negative experience or such. This essay will go into depth into concluding that such measurements are not often successful when it comes to understanding the

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