AC1.6 Writeup Evaluate Methods of Collecting Statistics about Crime
There are two methods of measuring and tracking trends in crime, these are recorded crime
statistics collected by the police (Home Office) and information collected in the Crime Survey for
England and Wales (CSEW).
Home Office
The Home Office provides police recorded crime (PRC) in tables that contain recorded crime figures
broken down by offence type, geography and time period. This information can be accessed by
public.
Reliability refers to whether a method for collecting information about something gives the same
result if used by a different person. If a method is reliable, then when it is repeated by someone else,
it gives the same consistent result.
A strength of Home Office Statistics is that police recorded crime statistics are generally regarded as
being reliable because all officers follow the same procedures, use the same definitions of crimes
etc.
However, a limitation is that it is possible for different officers to classify the same incident
differently. E.g. some crimes might be subjective e.g. assault. Likewise, different forces may define a
crime differently e.g., one might have policy of not reporting thefts of less than £10 and another,
£20. Reliability also refers to accuracy, so errors can be made when recording the details of a crime
or a victim.
Validity is described as the degree to which a research study measures what it intends to measure, if
the results of a study are not deemed to be valid then they are meaningless.
A limitation of police recorded crime statistics for the home office is that they may have low validity
(may not give us a true picture of the amount of crime). For example, the police recorded just over
45K rapes in 2016-2017, but many victims do not report the offence and because the police may fail
to record it this shows that we cannot get a valid picture of what is happening.
Ethics of Research, ethics refer to issues of morality, or right and wrong, in research on crime.
Because individual offenders and victims are not identifiable from the Home Office statistics (only
overall number of offences), there is no ethical issue of breaching a person’s privacy and so
anonymity is protected. This makes it a strength of Home Office Statistics because it is ethical.
Purpose of Research
If the purpose of the statistics collected by the police is to give a valid and reliable picture of the
amount of crime, then they fail on this score. Likewise, since the statistics only tell us about crimes,
they are of no help in understanding other issues, such as fear of crime.
There are two methods of measuring and tracking trends in crime, these are recorded crime
statistics collected by the police (Home Office) and information collected in the Crime Survey for
England and Wales (CSEW).
Home Office
The Home Office provides police recorded crime (PRC) in tables that contain recorded crime figures
broken down by offence type, geography and time period. This information can be accessed by
public.
Reliability refers to whether a method for collecting information about something gives the same
result if used by a different person. If a method is reliable, then when it is repeated by someone else,
it gives the same consistent result.
A strength of Home Office Statistics is that police recorded crime statistics are generally regarded as
being reliable because all officers follow the same procedures, use the same definitions of crimes
etc.
However, a limitation is that it is possible for different officers to classify the same incident
differently. E.g. some crimes might be subjective e.g. assault. Likewise, different forces may define a
crime differently e.g., one might have policy of not reporting thefts of less than £10 and another,
£20. Reliability also refers to accuracy, so errors can be made when recording the details of a crime
or a victim.
Validity is described as the degree to which a research study measures what it intends to measure, if
the results of a study are not deemed to be valid then they are meaningless.
A limitation of police recorded crime statistics for the home office is that they may have low validity
(may not give us a true picture of the amount of crime). For example, the police recorded just over
45K rapes in 2016-2017, but many victims do not report the offence and because the police may fail
to record it this shows that we cannot get a valid picture of what is happening.
Ethics of Research, ethics refer to issues of morality, or right and wrong, in research on crime.
Because individual offenders and victims are not identifiable from the Home Office statistics (only
overall number of offences), there is no ethical issue of breaching a person’s privacy and so
anonymity is protected. This makes it a strength of Home Office Statistics because it is ethical.
Purpose of Research
If the purpose of the statistics collected by the police is to give a valid and reliable picture of the
amount of crime, then they fail on this score. Likewise, since the statistics only tell us about crimes,
they are of no help in understanding other issues, such as fear of crime.
