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Criminology Essays | The 'Dark Figure' of Crime

In recent decades the subject of crime has become an increasingly important theme of political, academic, and public debate. As a result there has been a greater demand for public information regarding the extent of the crime problem in society. One of the key methods in which information about crime has been communicated to the public has been through the use of criminal statistics, which are often seen to provide the best indication of the level and nature of crime within this country. However academics, such as Koffman (1996) point out that these statistics are not always representative of actual crime, 'it is widely accepted that these official crime statistics, based on offences reported to and recorded by the police, provide a poor reflection of all the crimes that are actually committed each year' (Koffman, 1996: 41).

The disparity between the volume of crime which is actually committed and that which enters into official criminal statistics is often referred to by academics as the 'dark figure' of crime. There are many problems associated with the use of official criminal statistics linked to the notion of this dark figure. This essay will explore the difficulties posed by the 'dark figure' of crime and examine the efforts made to unveil it. It will also evaluate as far as possible how successful these attempts have been.

Most criminologists agree that official crime statistics are inaccurate and unreliable, but what are the explanations for the gap between recorded crime and actual crime? What factors contribute to the dark figure? There are a number of factors that may contribute to the disproportionate amount of recorded crime compared to actual crime and the directly related distrust of criminal statistics. One of the key issues is rooted in the ways in which offences that are committed are transformed into statistics. Firstly, for a criminal offence to be reported it must be detected and detectable. Often, some offences are not identified or even recognised as a crime; for example, in the case of corporate crime. Corporate crime, sometimes referred to as white-collar crime is sometimes identified as a victimless crime, or at least doesn't have an easily identifiable victim, for example tax evasion or fraud, which as a result tends not to be reported.

Also, only approximately one quarter of recorded offences is detected by the police themselves, the remaining three quarters of offences are reported to the police by a victim. This heavy reliance upon others to report crime leads to more factors that contribute to the 'dark figure' of crime. For example, in some circumstances a victim may be reluctant to report a crime as they believe it is a very minor offence or too trivial a matter to justify police involvement. Alternatively they may fear it will not be taken seriously by the police and therefore does not validate the effort required, or possible consequences such as further victimisation. As Muncie (2001: 195) puts forward, 'the British Crime Survey has consistently revealed that only about 50 per cent of crime is in fact reported to the police'.

Another key factor is the policy of the police to record reported crimes. It is often claimed that almost half of crimes reported to the police are not recorded. This may be due to a variety of reasons, for example, the Home Office has a set of guidelines and procedures that police officers adhere to that restrict what is recorded. In addition, local police forces have their own policy which compounds this problem. These policies are also subject to interpretation. Further to this the police officers themselves work to their own discretion. Also statistics do not include offences recorded by the British Transport Police, the Ministry of Defence Police or Customs and Excise. It is clear that there are a number of factors that contribute to the on-going problem of the dark figure of crime, but what are the consequences of this?

It is important to look at what difficulties the dark figure poses to society as a whole. Why is it so crucial that we uncover the true extent of it? The platform upon which to compare and analyse crime figures over periods of time has always been official criminal statistics. Criminal statistics are used by policy makers as a gauge of the nature and extent of society's crime problem. Crime is a contentious topic of particular political significance, the public view as to how successful a government is functioning often relies on crime and the issues it raises. 'A government which reduces crime will expect public recognition for this achievement. Conversely political support is likely to suffer if the level of crime increases. The evidence upon which claims of success or accusations of failure are based is crime statistics' (Joyce, 2001: 45).

As can be seen, the accuracy of criminal statistics and how far they represent society is of vital importance, as they have much influence and significance. They are used to evaluate the success of the states criminal justice policy and response to criminal behaviour. The mass media also bases a great deal of its crime reporting on these figures, claiming them as facts and communicates its view of this information to the public. Public opinion is heavily influenced by information articulated by the media, and the mass media will often draw attention to particular criminal acts or behaviours that they claim are rising and 'gripping society' through the use of statistics. This can often lead to an increase in public fear of crime and can significantly affect the way in which more vulnerable members of society go about their daily lives, particularly impacting on some groups within society. It is therefore of fundamental importance that crime statistics provide an accurate reflection of criminality and its effect on society. Policy makers use these statistics to inform their decision making in regards to crime related policy, if the statistics are unreliable the policy can prove to be ineffectual of even detrimental. The same could be said about academic studies that ground their research and proposals in statistics.

In more recent years, as a direct response to the inaccuracy of official crime statistics and the unknown extent of unrecorded crime, many criminologists have tried to assess the size of the dark figure. Williams (2004: 75) states that in efforts to uncover the dark figure, researchers have used three different methods. Firstly, some writers have simply tried to guess the real level of criminality in Britain. Although this method offers little reliability and estimates often differ immensely, all are in agreement that the dark figure of criminal offences is very high. The other two methods self-report studies and victim surveys have been widely introduced in the last few decades. It is important to look at them briefly in turn.