Minority Paradoxes: Ethnic Differences in Self-reported Offending and Official Crime Statistics

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 166-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjen Leerkes ◽  
Ramiro Martinez ◽  
Pim Groeneveld
Author(s):  
Mike Maguire ◽  
Susan McVie

This chapter provides a critical reflection on the nature and measurement of crime levels, patterns, and trends. It covers empirical and methodological questions about how much crime there is and how this changes over time and considers the relationship between what crime data are collected and published and changes in perceptions of and responses to the crime problem as a result of developments in the politics of crime control. The chapter is divided into three sections. The first provides a critical overview of the development of the ‘official’ crime statistics in England and Wales, highlighting some of the key decisions that are made about how to present statistics to the public and how to respond to legal changes, new sources of data, and the emergence of new kinds of criminal behaviour. The second section examines, and explores the reasons behind, a rapid growth in demand for new kinds of information about crime which has been evident since the 1970s. The final section summarizes challenges, dilemmas, and recent debates about the future of national crime statistics, including questions about how to maintain public trust and how to balance competing demands of relevance, comprehensiveness, and robust measurement of trends.


2002 ◽  
Vol 112 (477) ◽  
pp. F85-F106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziggy MacDonald

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 399-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Lysova

Homicide statistics are often seen as the most reliable and comparable indicator of violent deaths around the world. However, the analysis of Russian homicide statistics challenges this understanding and suggests that international comparisons of homicide levels can be hazardous. Drawing on an institutionalist perspective on crime statistics, official crime-based homicide statistics in Russia are approached as a social construct, a performance indicator and a tool of governance. The paper discusses several incentives to misrepresent official homicide data in contemporary Russia, including politicization of homicide statistics as a legacy of the Soviet’ era’s falsified crime statistics and the role of policing. Mainly, the paper identifies and describes the exact legal, statistical and country-specific substantive mechanisms that allow homicide statistics to be distorted in Russia. By considering legal mechanisms alone, the more accurate homicide rate may be at least 1.6 times higher than that reported in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Global Study on Homicide 2013.


Author(s):  
Johan Burger

The South African Police Service (SAPS) released the official crime statistics for 2008/2009 on 22 September 2009. As usual the statistics drew huge media and public interest. This article provides an overview of the key trends and offers an analysis of the statistics. Key trends include that the overall crime rate, after a five-year respite in which there was a downward trend, is on the increase; as are the so-called 'trio crimes'  (house robberies, business robberies and car hijackings) and truck hijackings. This article briefly considers the controversy around the validity of the police's crime statistics and notes a few lessons from Colombia.


2021 ◽  
pp. 001112872110415
Author(s):  
Brendan Lantz ◽  
Marin R. Wenger

Anti-Asian hate crimes have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, no research has considered whether crime reporting patterns are different among Asian hate crime victims, relative to other victims. Following this, this research presents an examination of differences in reporting victimization to the police between Asian and non-Asian victims using information from 997 respondents who experienced a hate crime in the first 1 to 2 months of the pandemic. Results indicate that Asian victims are significantly and substantially less likely to report victimization to the police than other victims. Taken together, these results suggest that current estimates of increases in anti-Asian hate crime based on official crime statistics—although high—may actually be an under-estimation of the true extent of the problem.


Author(s):  
Ted Leggett

According to the official crime statistics, the Western Cape has emerged as the country’s most crime-ridden province, and the Northern Cape as the most violent. This is confusing for criminologists who link crime to poverty, because these are two of the best developed provinces in the country, with the highest employment levels. Explaining crime in these provinces requires further research on the people and conditions in the area.


2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommi L. Gaines ◽  
Daniel Werb ◽  
Jaime Arredondo ◽  
Victor M. Alaniz ◽  
Carlos Vilalta ◽  
...  

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