To What Extent Do Current Crime Statistics Reflect Criminal and Deviant Behaviour in Our British Society

782 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Crime prevention approaches

Crime statistics exist entirely to measure levels of crime inside society; so, the purpose of this essay is to illustrate whether or not the statistical data on crime and deviance provides a true measurement of criminal occurrences in British society. The distinction between crime and deviance are going to be explored and a clear understanding of how they differentiate from each other will be gained. The terms Formal and Informal social control will be identified and their differences determined. In particular, official crime statistics will be analysed to gain an understanding of how accurate such data is in portraying the true figures of crime. Furthermore, key terms such as dark number, reported crime and recorded crime will be incorporated in to this essay and defined appropriately.
Crime and deviance are behaviours that violate the social norms or laws of society, all crime is deviant behaviour, but not all deviance is crime. Tappan describes crime as an act that has been intentionally carried out in order to violate criminal law and one that is sanctioned by the state as a criminal act (Cliffnotes, 2013). Another description of crime depicts it as a behaviour that breaks the laws of the land and is punishable in a court of law (sociologytwynham, 2008). There are various categories of crime, each with their own sociological profile. Personal crimes include actions such as murder or rape. Crimes against property involve deeds such as theft, arson, or burglary. Victimless crimes have no willing complainant; these can be crimes such as prostitution, illegal gambling or drug abuse. White-collar crime is perpetrated by individuals who hold high social status within society. These individuals will carry out crimes su...

... middle of paper ...

... that all police recorded UK crime is included. The advantages of The Official Crime Statistics are that patterns of criminal behaviour start to emerge. The Statistics can also give an idea of the trends that appear over time and areas of improvement that are needed. The office of National Statistics boasts that for the year ending March 2013 police recorded crime showed a decrease of 7%. In fact, police recorded crime seems to be steadily falling every year since 1995 (Office for National Statistics, 2013). The fact that these figures are steadily falling give the public the impression that the Police are doing their job. However, when these figures are investigated further a stark contrast unfolds. The Official Crime Statistics are based on Police recorded crime only, meaning that these figures are constructed. Police are responsible for categorising crime

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Get Prison

    1347 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through the first chapter of this book the focus was primarily on the notion of controlling crime. The best way to describe crime policy used in this chapter is comparing it to a game of ‘heads I win, tails you lose’. This chapter also addresses the causes for decline in America’s

    Read More

  • The Crime Survey for England and Wales

    1420 Words  | 3 Pages

    An anonymous and confidential household survey revealing unreported crimes and showing that anyone can become a victim. Participants are chosen at random according to postcode, providing a mixed sample from alternative areas and backgrounds. Conducted within a person’s home by an impartial interviewer it provides a more comfortable and familiar setting enabling victims to open up and provide clarity and details of crimes that they may otherwise not have reported, such as sexual offences (ONS,2013). Universal questioning methodology means everyone experiences the same questions therefore results should be accurate.

    Read More

  • White Collar Crime vs. Street Crime

    660 Words  | 2 Pages

    White Collar Crime vs. Street Crime One problem that plagues our society is crime. Crime is all around us in our everyday lives. Daily we hear of murders, robberies, and rapes. These are categorized as "street crimes. " For many people, such crimes are the only "tragic" crimes, the ones that are senseless and preventable.

    Read More

  • Rational Choice Theory White Collar Crime

    1539 Words  | 4 Pages

    White-collar crime is the financially motivated illegal acts that are committed by the middle and upper class through their legitimate business or government activities. This form of crime was first coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” (Linden, 2016). Crime has often been associated with the lower class due to economic reasons. However, Sutherland stressed that the Criminal Justice System needed to acknowledge illegal business activity as crime due to the repercussions they caused and the damage they can cause to society (Linden, 2016). Crime was prevalently thought to only be

    Read More

  • Crime In Industrialized England

    1458 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1761, at the beginning of the industrial revolution, England’s population consisted of 6.3 million inhabitants whereas 80 years later the population rose to 14.9 million, rising even with war and emigration transpiring. 1 The industrial revolution was a big step for Great Britain but not all benefitted, especially the poor and working class. One of the biggest negative side effects was poverty which increased the amount of street peddlers in the city streets. As that number grew many people grew upset complaining that they were blocking shops and taking up space, forcing street traders to move out to country borders, giving them less business and forcing them deeper into poverty. 2 With the beginning of the industrial revolution in the late 1700’s came the Crime Wave of the 1780’s where city prisons were filled to capacity and the amount of crime pushed forward policing levels and prosecution rates. This was only the beginning of a whole new era of criminal reform. 3 As the industrial revolution took its course throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the negative effects such as varying food prices and gruesome working and living conditions spurred rising crime rates, especially in property crime, leading to numerous police reforms and acts. Although these changes were not very effective in curbing the high crime they did end up laying a foundation for more successful reforms in the future.

    Read More

  • White-Collar Crime Vs. Street Crime

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    What most people don’t hear about on the news is what is considered white-collar crime, sometimes known as corporate crime. White-collar crime not only is less reported in the media but also receives weaker punishments than street crime. This paper will first discuss the similarities between the two types of crime and then explain why their punishments are strongly different. Lets first start off by defining each one of these types of crime. Street crime is a loosely defined term that usually refers to criminal acts that are done in public.

    Read More

  • The Role of Marginal Deterrence and Its Practical Application

    2271 Words  | 5 Pages

    The 2002 crime figures for England and Wales comprised of two separate reports, brought together for the first time: (i) Crime statistics recorded by constabularies and (ii) The British Crime Survey (BCS), based on 33,000 interviews. The BCS is regarded as a more reliable measure of actual levels of crime because it includes experiences of crime that go unreported. The British crime survey of 2002 revealed:

    Read More

  • White Collar Crime And White Collar Crime

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is customary to divide the categories of crimes, according to their violence ratio. For example, there are violent crimes, typically thought of as street crime, such as first degree, second degree, manslaughter and non-violent crimes such as blackmail, bribery, embezzlement, and forgery. However, the term “violent” can be applied to both street crimes and white collar crimes. Although street crimes are usually thought of as taking something by force, white collar crimes are typically perpetrated by a “respectable person”. The Department of Justice defines white collar crimes as “those classes of non-violent illegal activities which principally involve traditional ideas of deceit, deception, concealment, manipulation, breach of trust,

    Read More

  • The Crime Control Model

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are different principles that makeup the crime control model. For example, guilt implied, legal controls minimal, system designed to aid police, and Crime fighting is key. However one fundamental principle that has been noted is that ‘the repression of criminal conduct is by far the most important function to be performed by the criminal processes’. (Packer, 1998, p. 4). This is very important, because it gives individuals a sense of safety. Without this claim the public trust within the criminal justice process would be very little. The general belief of the public is that those that are seen as a threat to society, as well as those that fails to conform to society norms and values should be separated from the rest of society, from individuals who choose to participate fully in society. Consequently, the crime control model pro...

    Read More

  • Crime and Deviance - Left and Right Realism

    1692 Words  | 4 Pages

    Within this essay there will be a clear understanding of the contrast and comparison between left and right realism, supported by accurate evidence that will support and differentiate the two wings of realism.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Deviance In The Movie Crash

    694 Words  | 2 Pages

    Crime- A deviant act that is a violation of social set laws from the government.

    Read More

  • Explanation for Criminality from a Sociological Perspective

    4015 Words  | 9 Pages

    From a sociological perspective, explanation for criminality is found in two levels which are the subculture and the structural explanations. The sociological explanations emphasize aspects of societal arrangements that are external to the actor and compelling. A sociological explanation is concerned with how the structure of a society, institutional practices or its persisting cultural themes affect the conduct of its members. Individual differences are denied or ignored, and the explanation of the overall collective behavior is sought in the patterning of social arrangements that is considered to be both outside the actor and prior to him (Sampson, 1985).

    Read More

  • Crime and Social Inequality

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    Property Crime can be defined as the unauthorized taking or damaging of an individual’s personal belongings. This is not limited to robbery of any kind, fraud, or even arson, but all of these crimes have several coinciding traits that group them under this term. While property crimes are meant to take something that is not ours and use it for our own advantage, violent crimes are used to harm or even kill another rather than using for ones self. This includes hate crimes, murder, rape, and abuse. Hate Crimes are unique because they usually target someone who’s different than the race or sex of that individual committing the offense whereas murder and assault are not always gender or race defined. Therefore, property and violent crimes are influenced by social inequalities that are caused by gender, race, income and age; thus why the legal definition of crime cannot cover all possible scenarios without taking each individual case and studying social behaviors in these of why or what was the cause of the crime committed.

    Read More

  • Criminal Activity Then and Now

    2688 Words  | 6 Pages

    Crime develops from the wanting of certain things that attract or bring attention to certain individuals. A subject that is involved in breaking the law or a moral can be considered a criminal suspect according to the law. Crimes can range from violating less serious traffic code, which is basically a breach of a charter that is imposed by a city and up to the more serious things like murder. Anything that goes against the penal system of a country i...

    Read More

  • Crime And Deviance Essay

    1944 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sociologists have been examining crime and its causes for over 150 years, and through several researches, various explanations have been used to describe crime and deviance. Crime is a behaviour that goes against all formal written laws of a given society (Haralambos, Smith, O 'Gorman, & Heald, 1996). Laws in different societies differ, so do crimes i.e. what may be considered as a crime in one society may not be in another different society. For instance, while same-sex relationship is accepted in some countries like the United States, United Kingdom etc. it is illegal in countries like Nigeria, and most Arabic countries. Other examples of general crimes are theft/robbery, murder, kidnapping and others. Once a crime is committed, sanctions

    Read More

More about To What Extent Do Current Crime Statistics Reflect Criminal and Deviant Behaviour in Our British Society

Open Document