Measuring crime & deviance: official stastics

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When & where do we get official stastics from?
Records kept by the police - published every 6 months
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What are the advantages of OCS?
Cheap, easy to access, no ethical issues, same categorisation so reliable, range of social categories/crimes - patterns, cover every area so good representativeness, Funcs/RR based on OCS being true - not social construct
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Is the CSEW included?
Official stastics - data collected by police & courts, could be widedned to CSEW - collected by gov, victim survey, different methodology, info on criminals
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What is the dark figure?
Unrecorded/unreported crime, not recognised by victim as crime, not detected by police, highlighted by CSEW - many crimes reported to them not police, gap closing
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Who said that the OCS may not be useful and why?
Pilkington - OCS only tell us about increased reporting of particular crimes by general public & victims of crime, not actual increase itself, hard to trust/compare stastics
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The OCS may not be useful - what are exmples of this?
General public more intolerant of property crime as more materialistic -report theft more, juvenile crimes - deviancy amplification spiral, victimless crimes like soft drug use/prositution less reported -depend on police detection -varies by area
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What is the estimate of how many crimes make it through the reporting proccess
For every 100 crimes commited, only 47 reported to police, 27 recorded by police, only 5 cleared up in form of caution/conviction
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What did the CSEW say are the factors why individuals dont report crime to police?
Too trival to bother them, private matter, too embarassing, cant give info, fear reprisals
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What factors make people more likely to report a crime
Personal benefit to it eg insurance, have faith in police ability to get positive result
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What else do the CSEW show?
Volume of crime should be higher, females & m/c males just as likely to commit as those included in crime stastics
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What role do the media play in the reporting of crime?
Media provide examples of crimes - how victims know they are one - victims surveys, highten sensitivity towards certain crimes, sensiting public to crime worth reporting, change of portraty of domestic violence from family matter to crime
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What shows the important role the police play in the recording of crime?
One year approx 40% of all crimes reported to police dont appear in official stats,
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What factors show the role of the police in the recording of crimes?
Seriousness of crime, social status of victim not high enough, Classifying crimes by officers affects seriousness, Discreation only 10% offenses uncovered chance of arrest based on demeanour polite/rude, Promotions & realtionships -comradeship
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What is the role of the courts in the recording of crime?
Official stats reflect decisions & sentences of courts - social proccesses, pleading guilty to get lighest sentence even if not guilty, 75% plead guilty, affects stats
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What is the role of the government in the recording of crime?
Crime changes over time, law changes to reflect cultural changes & influence of powerful groups, crime across time could be due to law changes not crime changes, eg cannabis appears to decline but less arrests as public dont care
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How do Marxism evaluate the OCS?
Capitalist state/those with power to collect & construct stastics manipulate public opinion, serves interests of ruling class, Ideological function criminalise youth, w/c, black people, divides w/c as conformists distracted away from class inequalit
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Which Marxist criticises the OCS?
Box - OCS diverts attention away from m/c white collar & corporate, crimes by powerful not pursued as much as w/c, powerful's anti-social activities result in death/injury/theft for others but not defined as criminal as ruling class make laws
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What do Left Realists think about the OCS and who are they?
Lea & Young - OCS correct, young w/c & African-Carribeans (depends on area) do commit more crime than other social groups despite moral panics, police stereotyping and judicial bias
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What are the advantages of OCS?

Back

Cheap, easy to access, no ethical issues, same categorisation so reliable, range of social categories/crimes - patterns, cover every area so good representativeness, Funcs/RR based on OCS being true - not social construct

Card 3

Front

Is the CSEW included?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What is the dark figure?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Who said that the OCS may not be useful and why?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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