A summary of Unit 3 in Second year Criminology, covering content regarding victimisation, victim surveys, crime statistics and challenges that researchers in the field face.
UNIT 3
ASSESSING THE EXTENT AND NATURE OF VICTIMIZATION
IN SOUTH AFRICA
DATA SOURCES OF CRIMINAL VICTIMIZATION
Data sources can be broadly categorized as either:
Official data sources: Quantitative data (descriptive and explanatory)
obtained from government or government-approved bodies.
Non-Official data sources: Non-government-approved agencies, and
could either be qualitative (exploratory) or quantitative in nature or a
combination thereof.
The most prominent instruments used to assess criminal victimization
data are OFFICIAL CRIME STATISTICS and VICTIM SURVEYS.
1. Official Crime Statistics: Collected by government agencies to provide
crime information required by the national government of the Republic of South
Africa and local authorities for the purpose of formulating policy decisions.
Advantages Disadvantages
- People become aware of the - Government departments possess
creation of new offences or a great deal of discretion about
changes in legal definitions. whether/how to record possible
- The collection and presentation of offences – decisions as to which
data itself plays a dynamic part in kinds of offence to include and
the crime construction process. what counting rules to apply (“total
crime” can be raised or lowered
significantly at a stroke).
- Figures obviously do not include
, offences known to the public which
fail to come to the notice of the
police – reports from the public
may be disbelieved, considered as
too trivial, deemed not to
constitute a criminal offence.
2. Crime Victims Surveys/ International Crime Victims Surveys
(ICV’S)
VOCS (Victims of crime surveys) are scientifically designed to measure the
perceptions and experiences of victims in relation to:
- the nature, extent and patterns of crime
- Victim risk and victim proneness and
- criminal justice system service delivery evaluations
Advantages Disadvantages
- The idea is to obtain a more - Surveys may be subjected to
reliable and valid reflection of the sampling and non-sampling error
so-called true incidence of crime. (measurement error or
generalizability)
- VOCS can be rich source of - VOCS do not currently provide
information which will assist in the estimates for small geographical
planning of crime prevention as regions
well as to provide a holistic picture - Role in allocating state funds for
of victimization in South Africa. The criminal justice is limited.
data can be used for the
development of policies and
strategies + crime prevention and
public education programmes
SOME METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS WITH REGARD TO THE
MEASUREMENT OF VICTIMIZATION
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