Crime Statistics and the Media
Sociologists use three main sources to measure the extent of crime, and each has different strengths and weaknesses. Police-recorded (official) statistics only count crimes that are both reported to the police and recorded by them, so they are shaped by police discretion and by victims' willingness to come forward.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Explain the two-step filter behind official statistics: a crime must first be reported by a victim or witness, and then recorded by the police, and both steps can fail, which is why official statistics undercount the true level of crime.
- Give at least one named reason crime goes unreported (e.g. embarrassment, fear of the offender, believing the police cannot or will not act, or the crime being seen as 'victimless', such as some drug offences) and one named reason it goes unrecorded (e.g. police discretion, or pressure to meet recorded-crime targets).
- Explain the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) by name as an alternative measure: a large annual victim survey that asks people directly about their experiences of crime, which captures a large part of the dark figure missed by police records, but state at least one of its limitations, e.g. it can miss crimes without an individual victim, and depends on victims being willing to disclose sensitive crimes such as domestic or sexual abuse.
- Explain self-report studies as a third measure: individuals are asked, often anonymously, to admit to offences they have committed themselves, which can reveal hidden offending and challenge stereotypes about who commits crime, but validity depends on respondents' honesty and samples are often limited, e.g. to young people in education.
- Define the 'dark figure of crime' precisely as the gap between the real extent of crime and the crime that is officially recorded, and be ready to explain which of the three measures narrows that gap and which widens it.
- For questions on the media, use Stan Cohen's study of the Mods and Rockers (Folk Devils and Moral Panics, 1972) by name to explain how exaggerated media coverage can create a 'folk devil', trigger a 'moral panic', a disproportionate public reaction, and potentially cause deviancy amplification through a harsher policing or legal response.
- For evaluation questions, compare the three measures directly against each other on a specific criterion (accuracy, coverage, honesty) rather than describing each in isolation.
Worked example
Police-recorded statistics for a town show 500 burglaries in one year. A victim survey carried out in the same town and year finds that 1,400 households report having experienced a burglary. Explain why these two figures might differ so much, and identify the 'dark figure of crime' in this example.
- Note that both figures are measuring the same underlying thing, burglary in the same town and year, so the difference must come from how each figure was produced.
- Explain that police-recorded statistics only include burglaries that were both reported to the police and then recorded by them, so any burglary a victim did not report, or that police chose not to record, is missing from the 500 figure.
- Explain that the victim survey instead asks households directly whether they experienced a burglary, regardless of whether they told the police, so it can capture burglaries that never reached the official statistics.
- Identify the dark figure of crime in this example as the difference between the two counts, 1,400 minus 500 = 900 burglaries that were experienced by victims but never appeared in police-recorded statistics.
- Conclude that this gap is exactly why sociologists treat police-recorded statistics as an underestimate of the true extent of crime, and use victim surveys such as the CSEW alongside them.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1What is the 'dark figure of crime'?Show answer
Answer: The gap between the true, actual extent of crime in society and the crime that is officially recorded by the police.
Q2Name the two steps a crime must pass through to appear in police-recorded statistics.Show answer
Answer: It must be reported (by a victim or witness) and then recorded (by the police).
Q3What is the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)?Show answer
Answer: A large-scale annual victim survey that asks a representative sample of people about crimes they have experienced in the past year, whether or not those crimes were reported to the police.
Q4Give one type of crime the CSEW is likely to underestimate or miss.Show answer
Answer: Crimes without an individual victim, such as some drug offences, or crimes people are reluctant to disclose, such as domestic or sexual abuse.
Q5What is a self-report study?Show answer
Answer: A study in which individuals, often anonymously, are asked to admit to offences they have themselves committed, whether or not those offences were ever reported or recorded.
Q6According to Stan Cohen's study of the Mods and Rockers, what is a 'moral panic'?Show answer
Answer: A disproportionate public overreaction, fuelled by exaggerated media coverage, to a group or event presented as a serious threat to social values, which Cohen termed the 'folk devil'.
Q7Give one reason a victim might not report a crime to the police.Show answer
Answer: Embarrassment, fear of the offender, or a belief that the police cannot or will not do anything about it.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Sociology exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain two limitations of using police-recorded statistics to measure the true extent of crime.
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Nothing ticked yet - 4 available
Explain, using sociological evidence, why the Crime Survey for England and Wales gives a fuller picture of crime than police-recorded statistics.
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Nothing ticked yet - 8 available
Discuss how far sociologists would agree that official, police-recorded statistics give an accurate picture of the extent of crime in society.
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Nothing ticked yet - 12 available
See real GCSE Sociology past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
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