Evaluating methods of collecting statistics about crime
Home office
The home office is a collection of all data of recorded crimes from all police forces, which is
published monthly to the public. It breaks down the figures by setting them out in tables,
listing the type of offense, location, and time period. This makes it easy to read and analyse.
The home office reports are considered reliable as they come straight from police records,
and each report of every single crime should follow the same criteria, meaning reports are
consistent. However, reliability may be hindered by crimes which are subjective, or difficult
to classify. On top of this, errors may occur when recording crimes and victims.
Possibly the biggest issue with the Home Office is the lack of validity. Due the levels of
unreported crimes in the UK, the home office does not accurately portray a true picture of
crime. Crimes such as domestic violence or sexual assault, or any crimes that cause harm are
likely to go unreported and therefore the home office reports of crime levels are likely to be
much lower than the actual level of crime in the UK. This is called the dark figures in crime.
In contrast, there is little to no ethical issues with the Home Office. The reports do not
individually list all offenders and victims, therefore they are not identifiable and so privacy
and anonymity are protected. Only numbers of each type of crime are listed and so ethics
do not appear to be an issue.
The home office is intended to measure police activity. It allows us to identify trends in
crime by seeing which types of crime are well reported, and well recorded. However, the
lack of validity and reliability due to dark figures means that stats should be used cautiously
and only to identify trends.
The home office has other issues, such as the counting issue. This is when there is confusion
over how many offenses are committed. For example, if someone steals 12 items, should
this be classed as 12 offences of theft? Or if someone steals a credit card and uses it
numerous times, should it be classed as a single offense each time they use it? Also, changes
in law make it difficult to compare trends in crime across periods of time.
Overall, the home office does have many strengths. First, everything that is recorded is
reliable. Secondly, there is no ethical issues as all information of victims and offenders is
concealed, meaning privacy is not compromised. And thirdly, we could use them to predict
future crime levels by observing trends in crime and therefore budget accordingly in
preparation for dealing with them.
However, there is an equal number of weaknesses. Firstly, not all crimes are reported or
recorded so it is not an accurate image of crime levels. Secondly, not all crimes are recorded
in the same way. Thirdly, levels of crimes may be manipulated to make it seem like crime
levels are falling. This could be done by deleting records.
Overall, the home office has many uses, but all information must be used cautiously and
indefinitely due to its flaws such as reliability.
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