Crime Statistics

The crime we see today is only a fraction of what's actually being reported. and our textbook it clearly states in chapter 4, “ local sheriff department and police departments throughout the United States collect information on the number of reported crimes and arrest and voluntarily report them to the FBI”(pg.102). Now take note from this quote, it says Sheriff departments and police departments only “voluntarily” report to the FBI. Not everything is being accounted for.

This is such a problem reporting is because, citizens not reporting crimes, and police are not recording it. For an example, our Professor during class told us that CDs were stolen out of her car, but did she report it. No, our professor did not report it. Only small things were stolen, so she didn’t feel the need to report it. If something were something more valuable let’s say the radio, wheels, car seats, or the whole car. Then our professor would have reported it because, it those things are more valuable than CDs.

If we looked at crime rates statistically, it's not accurate. Because what's posted is only recordings from the police departments, and not everything is recorded. An interesting example, is when someone who has higher authority is fighting against a

The most common crime from common to uncommon is, “theft, burglary, aggravated assault, motor vehicle theft, forcible rape, and murder”(pg.108 table 4.2). Another factor that is sometimes not in the statistics is the dark figure of crime. the dark figure of crime is illegal Acts that go unreported. From the National Crime Victimization Survey it states. “NCVS interviews 90,000 households comprising more than 160,000 people 12 and older about their experiences of victims of crime.” All of these numbers, show how many crimes go unreported. For sociologists to collect better data looking at surveys is the best place to start