NCJ Number
131211
Date Published
1990
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Reports of crime figures should be evaluated critically since the relationship between the level of recorded crime and the real level of crime in a community is influenced by community attitudes, policing levels, and legislative changes.
Abstract
Community beliefs about crime may be influenced by the media, and both community and media attitudes toward crime and justice shape the laws which define criminal activities. Statistics on crime that appear in the media do not depict real crime figures because they only represent recorded crimes. Statistics of recorded crime often underestimate the level of real crime because many offenses are not reported to the police. Examples of unreported offenses are domestic violence, assault, shoplifting, tax evasion, and drug offenses. Apart from people's willingness to report crime to the police, another factor influencing recorded crime rates involves police activities. Certain offenses, such as drunk driving, are often discovered only when the police go out looking for them. Another important factor affecting the number of recorded crimes is population size. Nonetheless, crime statistics do not have to be complete to provide useful information about crime trends. Even if only a proportion of all offenses are recorded, this may still be a useful indication of crime trends as long as a constant proportion of offenses is being recorded. 10 notes and 10 figures