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Sting in the Tail of the British Crime Survey: Multiple Victimisations (From Surveying Crime in the 21st Century, P 33-53, 2007, Mike Hough and Mike Maxfield, eds., -- See NCJ-220695)

NCJ Number
220696
Author(s)
Graham Farrell; Ken Pease
Date Published
2007
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This chapter analyzes the effectiveness of the British Crime Survey (BCS).
Abstract
The chapter demonstrates that the BCS counting conventions masked the extent of chronic victimization in most official reports. For 25 years, the BCC provided a major contribution by collecting data for the study and prevention of crime. The survey’s reputation grew as the data collected and analyzed provided the basis for development of theory and practice. Currently, the BCS is the foundation research supplying the United Kingdom Government with the data that represents its crime problem. The reality of the situation is that the analysis of the research in this study determined that the administrative practice of restricting certain series incidents resulted in a lower estimation of crime reported in fewer numbers than what actually occurred. The effect was most pronounced for personal crime; results indicated that in the past 25 years, the data was underreported on personal crime by 40 percent while household crime was underreported by 20 percent on average. Three conclusions were drawn from the analysis. The amount of crime committed is substantially higher than BCS publications have reported; particularly underreported are crimes of violence, threat, and sexual in nature; and that this mischaracterized violent crime is only a small percentage of all crime. When crime is counted that includes the correct series of events, victimization is shown to be more concentrated on particular people and households than was previously thought. Because the number of victims of personal crime where the victim knows the offender was more extensive than reported, the study suggested that police should recognize the centrality in crime causation of troubled ongoing relationships. Tables, figure, notes, and references

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