Measuring crime

- Found that officers decisions to arrest are influenced by their stereotypes about offenders.

- Found that officers 'typifications' (their common sense theories/stereotypes of typical delinquents).

- Resulted in law enforcement showing a class bias.

- Police patrol working class areas

- Majority of crime that police are aware of, originates from public reporting.

- If the public dont report the crime, police will not be able to measure effectively.

- Stop and search alienate the community and dicourages them from reporting crime.

- Women will not report crimes such as domestic abuse through fear of the consequences.

- Police are known to not record cases casting them off as a 'marital row'.

- White collar crimes usually go undetected due to:

- Diffusion of responsibility

- Diffusion of victimisation

- Low visibility

- Complexity

- CSEW is a victimisation survey that aims to collect data from 50,000 households in England and Wales.

- It asks peeople for their perception of crime in their local area, how often they have witnessed crime, and if they have been a victim of crime.

- The CSEW doesnt measure domestic violence abuse accurately, because it doesnt measure victims only offences.

- E.g. a women who is domestically abused 20 times would only show as one victim.

Official crime statistics - crime statistics are drawn from records kept by police and other agencies CSEW.

How does police recorded crime get collected?

1) Crime must be recognised

2) Crime must be reported

3) Crime must be recorded

1) Crime must be recognised

2) Stop and search

3) Crime must be recorded