“Despite all the problems associated with their use, crime statistics created by governments remain one of the most useful sources of data about criminal and deviant behaviour” Evaluate this claim.
Official crime statistics are quantitative data produced by government agencies to provide information regarding crime rates. Crime itself can be defined as an illegal act that violates the current laws for which someone can be punished by the government for, however individuals may hold other views on what defines crime. I will critically examine the credibility of crime statistics by looking at different sociological perspectives on them, for example how feminists believe they underestimate crimes; and how they may or may not provide an insight into crimes today. An initial view of this claim is that crime statistics are generally gathered by a trustworthy board – i.e. the police force, meaning the validity and reliability shouldn’t have to be questioned.
One advantage of official crime statistics is that they are practical. The information gathered from them can be used by sociologists to make comparisons between offending rates for different classes, ethnic groups, genders or age. This means they can pinpoint whether or not individual differences affect the chances of someone committing a crime. This also means they can be used to examine trends over time to identify when crimes peaked or significantly decreased, and then these trends can be linked to various situations like political movements for example. Governments are interested in the same crime and deviance issues so stats produced by the government are likely to be very useful for researchers. In addition, crime statistics are secondary sources of data which means they are inexpensive and easily assessed.
On the other hand, the usefulness of statistics and a question of their validity have been posed by sociologists that hold an interpretivist perspective. This is due to the fact that crime statistics...