Outline and assess the importance of victim surveys for sociological understanding of crime and deviance.

There are many problems associated with the police recording of curse statistics, the primary(prenominal) problem macrocosm that many crimes go un handle. As an supplementary it was suggested that a cross section of the population should be asked nevertheless about the crimes that have been commited against them. It was argued that much people would be likley to brood crimes to an anon. survey than to the police. There are several reasons wherefore so many crimes go unreported. Some people may be withal shocked or ashamed to report a crime, such as in cases of rape. Some may be in fear of reprisal, or may be protecting the offender, such as in cases of domestic violence. an separate(prenominal) dupes may animadvert that the crime is too trivial or that the police would not be able to help anyway. by from crimes that are not reported, on that point are to a fault crimes that are not recorded by the police. It is estimated that only 40% of reported crime is recorded. Therefore victim surveys are main(prenominal) to give a more true-to-life(prenominal) understanding of crime. The British abhorrence Survey (BCS) is now conducted on an annual basis, on approximatley 15,000 households. The seek is designed to be as representative as possible, selecting households from wholly over the country.

The BCS in 1998 spy that, only atomic number 53 in four crimes are reported to the police, car theft is the more or little likley to be reported (98%) whilst nearly other crimes have a report rate of less than 50%, of all crimes vandalism is the most under-reported. The crime universe too trivial is the most commonly given reas! on for not reportage crime. It as well discovered that most crimes are property crimes. However in that respect are some problems with the BCS. The most obvious one being that as a victim survey it misses... If you inadequacy to target a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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