Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 12.3
Stages of interpreting crime
big difference in what is considered to be the fact of a crime, and its identifica-
tion and solution. Indeed, it was estimated by Radzinowicz and King (
1977
) that
approximately 80 % of crime goes undetected and unpunished, although there are
great variations across crime categories. One of the lowest offence-detection rates
is seen in the case of rape. Only 5 % of those accused in court in the U.K. for rape
are ever convicted, while the underreporting of the crime is seen by the fact that sur-
veys have shown that only one in seven rape victims ever report the crime. In many
countries even fewer rapes or reported or even upheld. This type of crime may be an
extreme example of under-reporting, but illustrates the problem of crime measure-
ment. Through time the problem of effective measurements becomes worse, since
there are also variations in all these stages and the behaviours that are criminalised
vary. Spatially, the incidence of crime also varies considerably across various ju-
risdictions, both within and between nations. In some cases there are alternative
measurements of crime which throw light on the situation. For example, Britain,
like most developed countries, publishes regular
statistics on the crimes recorded
by the police, but since different aggregations of crimes may be used, as well as dif-
ferential recording by forces, they must be treated with a great deal of caution. Al-
though they provide at least an initial approach to crime amounts, many believe that
a truer picture of crime is obtained from the type of information annually published
by the British Crime Survey (BCS), which records the extent to which surveyed
people say they have
actually been a victim of crime
, which is further up the crime
recognition sequence described above. For example, between 1981 and 2003 the
amount of crime reported by the surveyed people in Britain rose from 36 to 44 %
(BCS
2004
). But of these crimes, the amount recorded by the police was only 62 %
of the 36 % in the base year and 77 % of the 44 % in 2003. This means that only 22.1
