Assess the extent to which we can uncover Essay

Official crime statistics report crime levels live been inform to be steadily falling since 1995, although showing a supple increase in burglaries. These official statistics be released by the Home Office, and are collected from guard force set downs in the UK, these statistics are widely regarded to be a true and accurate measure of crime, despite evidence suggesting otherwisewise. other elan of recording crime is through self report studies, which although does give forth some indication of crime levels, it is considered to be inaccurate out-of-pocket to the anonymity of those keep abreasted meaning in that respect is a chance of exaggeration or lying.A more reliable source would perhaps be a dupe survey such as the BCS, a large scale survey conducted in the UK, which enables victims to report crime. Criminologists have used these to try to decrease the follow of un cognize or unrecorded crime. Yet again this gives those surveyed the coer of anonymity, which could turn up in exaggeration, underplaying the crime, or just lying. Not only is this but it is dependent to mistakes due to relying on the memories of its participants, which may mean the results are wrong.Also there is a line of work in that victims are categorising the crimes themselves, and so it may exaggerate some forms of crime, making them out to be more or little serious. Studies found too that types of corporate crime executeed to be ignored due to there it is conditionn as diminished compared to assault for example. Sexual crimes also tend non to be reported due to the stigmas given to them. Young multitude are too excluded from this survey, as only over 18s participate, and so a large majority of the state is ignored, and this means that victims of on-going child abuse cant report existence a victim.This obviously is one explanation as to how these statistics cannot be relied on to be wholly reliable. One argument against official crime statistics is that they are a record of crime, which are recorded by law, rather than of crimes reported to police, minor crimes for example like petty theft or hooliganism may not be thought of as serious replete to record and therefore would not be included in the report.Another type of crime which falls into this category is internal effect some of these crimes arent recorded, due to the fact that it is so difficult to point the fingerbreadth of blame. This means that we do not show a true descriptor of crimes which the police are faced with, only the ones which they pursue further. This shows that it falls to the notion of the police to choose what is deemed a crime and what is to be followed up.It is also suggested that police will record more crimes at points of the year when they are not so busy, however at times that crimes rates are high-pitched, less(prenominal) trivial crimes will be recorded, this is because it frees up officers for more important duties, and saves the police force extr a work on things they dont see as worthwhile, furthermore officers will record crimes more, or more high profile crimes, if they are looking to boost their own career, they may record more straightforward crimes, so that they can solve more cases, and realise from a promotion.Some crimes are recorded, but due to work load of officers may later be removed from records and classified as non-crimes in order to decrease heavy work schedules.A second problem with official crime statistics is that many crimes go unreported, particularly domestic help violence and sexual abuse this is due to the fact that the crimes are seen as forbidden and carry labels of shame and in some communities these issues are seen as the norm, in the past for example many people simply accepted domestic violence as a common part of marriage, and something that could be unyielding by the couple themselves an example of this would be the fact only recently has it been possible for a husband to be convicted o f raping his wife.When the man is the victim of domestic violence too, or a child is being abused, the crimes lots go unreported, due to the shame of telling, and fear of not being believed. Also minor crimes, in which the victim feels that it is not worth making a statement, they do not report it. Gang crimes often go unreported due to the fact that they tend to take the law into their own hands, rather than sample retribution from the state, they go out and seek it directly from the perpetrator themselves, often reciprocating with a similar act of violence, which they had previously been a victim of.This is because they see their method as more effective and brings with it a higher post than reporting the crime to the authorities does. Other reasons for not reporting the police include, being scared of the person who carried out the crime, a drug principal sum beating up a drug addict who has not compensable him would be an example of this, the crime may be reported to other authorities, like the council, medical boards etc. or it is thought that many people do not report crimes, due to anti-police feelings.It is a well known fact that only a very small percentage of screw up cases actually make it to court, even smaller is chance of a conviction. It is for this reason that victims are often very reluctant to report the crime, as the demonstrate of giving evidence and standing up in court is super stressful, and weighed against the fact that it is unlikely to secure a conviction it may be altogether less painful to not report it.