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Unit 1 AC1.6 model answer
- Module
- Changing Awareness of Crime
- Institution
- WJEC
A model answer for Unit 1 criminology AC1.6. I strongly advise writing in your own words to avoid plagiarism. This answer got full marks.
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Title: Evaluate methods for the collection of statistics on crime. (6 marks) Unit 1- AC1.6There are two methods in the collection of statistics in crime and these are the Home Office
Statistics and the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). The Home Office Statistics are annual
reports that are published on how much crime is based in society at one time. The statistics are
collected from police reports. CSEW is a victim survey rather than police reports and it asks a sample
population about their experience of crime, and this includes crime against households, adults,
children, society, and businesses. The survey asks about any crime that the person may have
experienced in the last twelve months and allows them to document their perspective of the
experience.
The Home Office Statistics may be classed as unreliable as the methods of reporting crime may vary
year by year and this can make comparing statistics difficult. This means that the annual reports are
not useful as they cannot be compared to previous years, leading to the police and other
organisations not being able to use the information to their benefit to attempt to prevent crime.
Also, the statistics do not address the dark figure of crime, meaning that up to 60% of crime that
occurs in not included in their reports. This leads to the figures being warped and not reliable as lots
of data is missing. Another reason as to why it lacks reliability is that police recording rules vary from
location to location and smaller crimes like theft of items under £10 may not be recorded in some
areas but is in others, meaning that the recording process is inconsistent. CSEW can be seen as
reliable as the information recorded is firsthand information from the victim's experience and this
can be much more reliable than the polices interpretation of the events. However, relying on the
victim's memory can be unreliable as they can forget information on the offence or they may
accidentally make up events that did not happen, once again affecting the figures. Another point is
that the victim may think that the crime happened in the last twelve months but instead was longer
ago, meaning that the information should not be included in the statistics. A last point is that some
victims may not have realised that they are a victim of a crime and therefore they will not report it.
For example, people may not realise they have been a victim of fraud due to the nature of white-
collar crimes as they are difficult to detect and prosecute.
The Home Office Statistics may lack validity as they do not address unreported crime, meaning that
the statistics produced are incorrect as up to 60% of crime has been not included. As well as this, the
police do not always record all crimes reported to them, once again meaning that not all crimes are
included in the published reports. However, CSEW can be more valid due to including information of
unreported crimes as it is an anonymous survey for victims to submit their experiences
confidentially. This can then override some reasons as to why people may not report crimes like
shame or embarrassment, allowing unreported crime that is not in police reports to be captured. On
the other hand, CSEW does not capture victimless crimes as they are not reported to them and not
having this information can impact the validity of the results and statistics.
The Home Office Statistics are ethical as they follow many rules and codes of conducts to keep
victims right to privacy, confidentiality and informed consent in mind when recording and publishing
the reports. Also, CSEW is ethical as the survey is entirely anonymous and stays completely
confidential through the publishing process as the victims right to privacy is protected. Also, the
information collected by CSEW is only used by them and is not transferred over to other
organisations. This keeps the victims' experiences and information completely confidential as it is
not seen by anyone else.
A strength of the Home Office statistics is that police can utilise these annual statistics by analysing
crime patterns and then therefore detecting crime easier using that information. This can then help
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