Crime, statistics, and punishment
How much crime is there, and what should societies do about it? Both questions are harder than they look.
Measuring crime
Official crime statistics count crimes reported to police, but many crimes go unreported. Victimisation surveys ask people directly whether they have been victims, revealing a 'dark figure' of hidden crime. Each method has blind spots, so sociologists compare several sources.
Corrections and incarceration
Societies respond to crime with punishment, deterrence, rehabilitation, and restorative justice, which brings offenders and victims together to repair harm. The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. Recidivism, the rate at which released people reoffend, is a key measure of whether a system works.
Worked example: two cities
City A reports more burglaries than City B. Before concluding that A has more crime, a sociologist asks: Do residents in A trust police more and report more often? Is A's population larger? Are definitions the same? Comparing rates per 100,000 people and checking victimisation surveys gives a fairer picture.
Flashcard
A survey asking people if they have been crime victims
Check your understanding
A programme where offenders meet the people they harmed and agree on how to make amends is: