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How do we know what we know about crime? How
accurate is this knowledge?

Back in history, crime has been everywhere around us, and so is today
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In
1933, Michael and Adler stated that crime is behaviour which is not allowed by criminal code
at the time it is committed
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As we have seen from above, there is no much dilemma when defining crime, but it appears
when we want to measure it
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Although those
methods are useful in measuring crime, every method has a different limitation, and it is
impossible to say how much crime is there
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Thus, the primary
purpose of this essay is to explain how people know about crime and whether the information
is correct or not, based on the researchers in the UK and the USA
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To start with, people often do not report
crime to the authorities (Becker, 1968); therefore the offences might go undetected forever
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Furthermore, crime sometimes goes unreported because there
may be no victim (Newburn, 2013) such as buying and selling drugs
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Secondly, an offence can be reported, but there is no
guarantee that it will be recorded and defined as a ‘crime'
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Moreover, a poor number of reported and recorded offences end up with a conviction or a
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caution (Becker, 1968)
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As we have seen above, there are many reasons why some
crimes are not recorded or even reported, and thus it is impossible to know how much crime
is out there
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Therefore, citizens think their right is to be aware of criminal activities in
their countries and wider
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Firstly, there is a method which collects information from criminal
justice agencies, reported by the public or otherwise crimes that come to the attention of the
police
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In the United
States, these are called Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) collected by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) while in England and Wales police is the one responsible for data
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In 1972, the USA established the US
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), previously called National Crime Survey
(http://www
...
gov/)
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BSC had been
renamed as The Crime Survey for England and Wales since Scotland established their survey
in 1993 (Hope, 2005)
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However, the reason why measuring is so complicated is
undoubtedly explained by the fact that many offences are not being reported
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These statistics in England
and Wales are Criminal Statistics, which emerged later in the nineteenth century with the
merit of Rawson and Fletcher, and later by the work of Henry Mayhew (Newburn, 2013)
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Statistics in England and Wales contain crime data reported and known to the police, but do
also own information related to prison, probation and sentencing
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Furthermore, the USA statistics are called Uniform
Crime Reports (UCR) which took place in the 1930s (Wolfgang, 1963) and are still the base
for reporting crime in America
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Thus, it
cannot tell much about ‘overall crime rate' in the USA since a lot of types of crime are not
being covered
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Comparing data from the statistics, levels of crime in the nineteenth and early
twentieth century were extremely low on contrary to the twenty-first century when criminal
activities suddenly grew (http://www
...
org/)
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Moreover, official statistics contain more than 100 different offences which are grouped into
nine main categories of crime (Newburn, 2012)
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gov
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while Uniform Crime Reporting
Program publishes crime data since 1958 in the publication Crime in the United States
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Interviewers visit houses and question members of the family about their experience of crime
in the past year
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The National Crime Victimization Survey was settled in
1972 in the USA
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Within a
few years, the Home Office in the UK had started to fund survey previously called British
Crime Survey
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Survey's

results

are

available

online:

http://www
...
co
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Official statistics and victimisation surveys have shown an enormous impact on measuring
crime, and thus on people's knowledge about it, too
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Nowadays, crime has
become a dominant topic for television, newspapers, books, cinema, magazines, etc
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Ericson et al
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Becoming a part of our lives, the media have revealed a lot of criminal activities in
our cities, countries and a whole world
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He argued that the media focus more on crime of the powerless than powerful so as
he describes crime news as cultural conflict
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Hence, what will press say depends on various factors which
indicate that information they provide is not entirely accurate
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Official crime statistics, collected every year for a century and a half,
have shown a great impact on knowledge about crime trends by which criminologists
concluded crime rate began to rise dramatically in the 1950s
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Moreover, without the media people could
never access that information and, thus, it is a major factor in developing our knowledge
about crime and deviance
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At the moment, there are probably numerous crimes in progress which
may stay unknown forever because it is impossible for the authorities to be at every place
where an offence could occur, and there is no guarantee that a victim or a witness will report
it
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Reference list:

Becker, G
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, 1968
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In The Economic
Dimensions of Crime (pp
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Palgrave Macmillan UK
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, Cox, P
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, South, N
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and Turton, J
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Criminology: A
sociological introduction
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Pp: 27-38
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H
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Criminal victimization in the United States: A report of a national survey
(No
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Chicago: National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago
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, 1998
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By Clive Coleman
and Jenny Moynihan
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ISBN 0‐335‐195519‐9
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Criminal Behaviour
and Mental Health, 8(3), pp
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Newburn, T
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Criminology
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Routledge
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Newburn, T
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Key readings in criminology
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Pp: 41-79
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& Putwain, D
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Psychology and Crime
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Routledge
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, 1966
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thecrimson
...
E
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Uniform crime reports: A critical appraisal
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708-738

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