CAPE®

MEASUREMENT AND DISTRIBUTION

OF CRIME

LESSON 9

Directed by
REMONE L. FOSTER
-

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 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, you should understand:

• The dark figure of crime

• The problems of official crime statistics
• The distribution of crime based on:
(a) Region – urban vs rural
(b) Class – upper class v working class (white collar crime)
(c) Age – juvenile delinquency
(d) Gender – women v men
(e) Ethnicity – black v white
 ESSAY QUESTIONS
Assess the view that women are less likely to become criminals.
In your discussion, consider any factors that can cause
criminality amongst women. [25 marks]

“Younger people have more opportunity to commit crime than

older people.” To what extent do you agree with this statement.
[25 marks]
MEASUREMENT
OF CRIME
No society is crimeless, and it is important to measure the crime to
predict future trends and determine how best to combat crime. Crime is
measured in a variety of ways such as:

❑Official crime statistics

• Crimes recorded and reported by the police and other government
agencies
• Use by sociologists as secondary forms of data
• Useful in identifying trends in recorded time over time
• Useful in identifying trends in particular crimes over time, e.g., are
conventional crimes gone up or down
• Useful in identifying trends in particular crimes in a particular area
and amongst a particular group
❑Victim surveys
• These are surveys that ask victims what crime they were affected by
• These surveys are done to capture crimes that were not recorded or
reported to the police
• These are not always accurate because some people might lie about
being affected by crime or be unwilling to talk about their victimization
out of fear and embarrassment, e.g., people affected by fraud, sexual
assault and rape

❑Self-Report Studies
• These studies involve asking people directly what crime they might
have committed
• People generally lie or are reluctant to self-criminate
• It also requires a vast and extensive study to have a true picture of the
criminality of society
The Dark Figure of Crime
• Many Sociologists argue that official statistics are faulted
because of the “dark, hidden or grey figure of crime”.
• This is the difference between the actual number of crimes
and crimes reported to or recorded by police.
• While some crimes are reported, many crimes are not
reported or remain undiscovered.
• Official statistics would seriously underestimate the real or
true figure of crime.
Other problems with official statistics
Official crime statistics are not often reliable. This is because:

• there tends to be an underestimation of crime especially among

members of the middle class and females

• there tends to be an overestimation of crimes, especially among the

working class and males.

• Crimes are reported to and recorded by police officers and, therefore,

there tends to some bias in the recording of crimes.

• Many people do not actually understand that a rise in crime is not

always a rise in actual crime, but a rise in reporting due to living
standards and public attitudes.
• The number of recorded offenses depends on official
counting procedure which frequently changes.

• Not all crimes are reported e.g., child abuse,

domestic violence, fights that result in little or no
injury, rape and sexual assault

• Interactionists are of the view that official crime

statistics reflect police and public perceptions.

• Left Realists, while skeptical of crime statistics,

generally agree that statistics broadly reflect crime
distribution.
DISTRIBUTION
OF CRIME IN
SOCIETY
Official statistics of crime are generally used to appreciate the
distribution of crime in society. Based on these statistics, crime is
distributed on such factors as:

• gender (males are generally seen as more criminal than females)

• age (young people commit more crimes than adults)
• region (less crime in rural areas than in urban areas)
• ethnicity (more crimes committed by young blacks as opposed to
Asians or whites)
• class (more crimes committed by working class people as opposed to
middle class people) – white collar crimes.
GENDER AND CRIME
Studies have shown that females commit fewer crimes than males.
Heidensohn (1996) argues that females commit less crime because of:
• Different socialization: Men were socialized to be aggressive and
women to be soft
• Women experienced fewer opportunities to commit crime. They have
to be attending to the children and even at work they tend to occupy less
powerful positions and a subjected to close supervision.
• The changing roles of women which causes men to become
marginalized and restore to crimes to provide for their family.
Some sociologists are of the view that there is often a gender bias in
official statistic because police officers and judges tend to be very lenient
with women. They often believe that women are incapable of committing
crime. Even so, female crimes tend to be less visible to police officers, e.g.
child abuse, assault or petty crimes. When women commit crimes, poverty
is often used as the main explanation.
AGE AND CRIME
• Crime statistics suggest that crimes are likely
committed by individuals between the age of 14 and 21.
Although adults commit crimes, these are often limited.

• Travis Hirschi’s social control theory can be used to

explain why older persons are less willing to commit
crime. By this, they are more bonded to society
through their community involvement and economic
possessions.
What factors foster criminal behaviour among the young?

• Poor socialization patterns

• Learning criminal behaviours from parents and peer groups –
Consider the Differential Association Theory by Sutherland
• lack of educational and economic opportunities
• their lifestyles (the young are outgoing, wild and fun seeking)
• the presence of opportunities e.g., going to parties etc
• less attachment to society (don’t have any investments or
responsibilities) – Hirschi's control theory
Theoretical explanations of juvenile delinquency
❑Albert Cohen believes that working class boys commit juvenile
delinquency because of two reasons:

• Their parents fail to equip them with the right skills required to
succeed in education
• Society encourages its members to acquire status through
educational success, jobs and materialism. However, they are
unable to acquire this status.
Cohen's basic assumption is that most juvenile criminals are members
of delinquent subcultures. Cohen's subcultural theory assumes that
crime is a consequence of the union of young people into so-called
subcultures in which deviant values and moral concepts dominate.
•Left Realists, Jock Young and John Lea, believe
that lower class members feel marginalized due to
“relative deprivation”. They lack power and
wealth and seek these through criminality.
•Marxists believe that juvenile delinquency is a
bash against capitalism.
•Hirschi believes that older people in the middle
class or upper class have too much to commit
crime. They have jobs, homes, families and
reputation that cannot be corrupted. As younger
people lack all of these, they are more willing to
commit crimes.
REGION AND CRIME
Crime statistics suggest that more crime is committed in
urban areas rather than rural areas. This is because:

(a) There are more opportunities for crime in urban

areas, as there are more people to rob, and there are more
places to commit crimes e.g., banks, malls, large
commercial districts, markets etc.
(b) There are more police resources in the urban areas:
This tends to increase the possibility that crime will be
notified to/by the police. Police are actively patrolling
urban areas which makes it more likely to find crime.
(c) In rural areas, patterns of association tend to be
characterized by informal social controls. People are
close to each other and this make them less willing to
commit crime as opposed to those who are associated
with larger areas. More attachment to society.
(d) It is not that crime is not present in rural areas,
but it is important to note the reaction that one gets
from such a crime. In rural areas, crimes are not
recorded because there is little or no involvement by
the police in criminal matters.
CLASS AND CRIME
• There is a clear relationship between crimes and class.
• Many offenders are taken from the lower or working class.
• One cause is the present of different opportunities. This is not to
say that because more members of the working class are
convicted of crime, they commit more crime.
• The working class tends to involve in crimes that are highly
visible, while the other classes tend to involve in crimes that are
not visible to the public. Furthermore, many of the crimes
committed by those classes are not considered to be law breaking
crimes.
• Working class crimes are normally violence, theft and killing.
Middle class crimes are usually fraud and embezzlement Upper
class crimes are usually corporate and white-collar crimes e.g.,
environmental crimes, market rigging etc.
White-collar crimes

•This is crime committed by upper- or

middle-class members of society.

•Marxists believe that white-collar crime and

corporate crime are neglected by society
because they are both likely to be carried out
by the capitalist class or its agents.
Why are white-collar crimes less likely to be recorded?
(a) They are often invisible (not seen in the public’s
eyes – no blood on the streets)
(b) They are complex (usually they involve the abuse
of technical, financial and scientific knowledge)
(c) Victimization tends to be indirect (offenders and
victims rarely came face o face). Consequently, we
fear white-collar crime less than conventional crimes
(d) Such crimes also tend to be morally ambiguous
e.g., not all people see tax evasion as a crime as
opposed to robbery or assualt
(e) Both the police and civil agencies may lack the
resources to detect and prosecute such crimes
(f) Because these crimes are rarely prosecuted, people
normally get away with them
(g) Marxists believe that the aim of the law is to put
blame on the working class and give the impression
that they are the “problem population”.
(h) Left Realist, Lea and Young, argue that it is really
the fact that conventional crime causes fear in society
as opposed to the white-collar crime.
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