The Extent to Which Sociologists Agree that Official Criminal Statistics Do Not Give an Accurate Picture of the Extent in Terms of Crime

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The Extent to Which Sociologists Agree that Official Criminal Statistics Do Not Give an Accurate Picture of the Extent in Terms of Crime

The official crime statistics on there own are ok to some extent, they

give some accuracy on the crime statistics but they don’t show the

whole picture, there is still a lot of crime which is not reported

(this is known as the hidden figure). Moreover self report studies

give better pictures to the public about criminal statistics. Self

reported studies are confidential surveys that ask people to tick off

boxes from a list. From this a clear picture is created and therefore

the statistics can tell the truth.

Although official crime statistics may appear to show the whole

picture about crimes committed, they need to be treated with concern.

Crime recorded by the police represents only a biased picture of the

total amount of crime committed. Many problems begin when considering

whether the official criminal statistics tell us the truth or not. I

will explore these issues within my essay.

...

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