Focus on crime counting
MANY of us who read the daily newspaper or watch the news on television believe that crime is the most pressing problem. From the media we can get some information about the number of crimes that are committed in our society, and also whether the crime rate increasing or decreasing. Crime rate is a measure of incidence of crime expressed as the number of crimes per unit of population or some other base. The fact is that what the people or the media know about crime is based on statistics that is supplied by government agencies.
The counting of crime is a socially organised activity, with its own intrinsic causes and consequence. Numerous governmental agencies are involved in the official counting of crime. Crime statistics tell us about the magnitude of crimes and the extent to which they change in terms of time and location, and are the indices of intensity of crime recorded annually in a particular country, region or place.
Crime statistics reflect the ascending or descending trends in crime and also give information as to how new forms of crime are emerging and old ones are disappearing or assuming new dimensions. They also give a picture of the distribution of crimes in different areas regions and locations.
The statistics of offences committed in Bangladesh are officially maintained by the Ministry of Home. The Bangladesh police, in their Annual Police Report, present the total scenario of crimes committed in the country. The number mentioned in the report is the offences reported by the police stations all over the country.
There is a problem in relying on crime statistics to measure the prevalence of crime. Statistics about crime and delinquency are probably the most unreliable and most difficult of all social statistics because it is impossible to determine with accuracy the number of crimes committed in any given jurisdiction at any particular time. This is so because:
-Some behaviour is labelled as a crime by one observer but not by another. If any behaviour is not labelled as a crime, it is not counted. On the other hand, if it is wrongly labelled a crime, then it may be wrongly counted as such. Both situations contribute to the inaccuracy of crime statistics;
-A large proportion of crimes go undetected;
-Some crimes that are not reported to the police are unlikely to be counted;
-Crimes that are reported to the police may not be officially recorded by them, or may be inaccurately recorded.
Crimes that are not officially recorded by the police are called the dark figure of crime. This is a common fact in crime statistics in our country. There are many reasons for the non-reporting of crimes. Victims may consider the crime insignificant and not worth reporting. They may hope to avoid embarrassing the offender, who may be a relative, school friend or fellow employee. They may wish to avoid the publicity that might result if the crime were reported. They might have agreed to the crime, as in gambling offences and some sexual offences. They may wish to avoid the inconvenience of calling the police (filling out a report, appearing in court, and so on). They may be afraid of or intimidated by the offender. They may dislike the police or be opposed to the punitive policies of the legal system. They may feel that the police are so inefficient that they will be unable to catch the offender even if the offences are reported.
For all these reasons, statistics may only partially reflect the real situation, as a vast majority of offences always remain unreported. As a result, the real number of crimes remains unknown to us. Despite the doubts expressed about the authenticity of crime statistics, the fact remains that they serve as a primary source of information about the types of crimes that are more likely to occur in a particular area or in a particular season.
So it must be pointed out that collection and collation of statistics is really a specialised subject, which requires presentation of information in the form of tables, charts, graphs etc. This job should be handled only by well-trained and qualified professionals who have real aptitude for this work.
The major purpose underlying crime statistics is to explain and predict the phenomenon of criminality and focus attention on causes of different crimes in different locations. The reliability of such statistics, however, depends on the validity of data collected for the purpose.
Analysis of data involves the breaking down of relevant figures into constituent parts in order to find out the cause for increase or decrease in the rate of various crimes. Thus, statistical methodology serves as a useful technique for formulating strategies to combat crimes and criminality.
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