CRIME STATISTICS

• Crime reports and statistics convey an extensive assortment of information about

crime to the reader and include topics such as the extent of crime and the nature
or characteristics of criminal offenses, as well as how the nature and
characteristics of crime change over time.

• Aside from these big-picture topics related to crime, crime reports and statistics
communicate specific information on the characteristics of the criminal incident,
the perpetrator(s), and the victim(s).

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CRIME STATISTICS

• For example, crime reports and statistics present information on the

incident, such as weapon presence, police involvement, victim injury,
and location of the crime.

• Details such as the age, race, gender, and gang membership of the
offender are also available in many of these reports.

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IMPORTANCE OF CRIME STATISTICS
• Crime reports and statistics are vital to the study of criminology. Without these
tools, our understanding about what kind of crime is occurring, how often crime
is being committed, who is committing crime, who is being victimized, and the
characteristics of offenses would be little more than guesses.

• Aside from a pure information utility, crime reports and accompanying statistics
serve as an important indicator of the “health” of society. A rising crime rates
suggests that society is ailing. Unequal victimization risk among groups of
individuals suggests a societal ill in need of attention.
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IMPORTANCE OF CRIME STATISTICS
• Conversely, a reduction in crime conveyed by these reports and statistics is one
indicator of an improved quality of life.
• An equally important function served by crime reports and statistics is to assist
researchers in the development of and testing of crime and victimization
theories.
• Another important function of crime reports is providing policymakers valuable,
empirically based information so they can design policies to further reduce crime,
better assist crime victims, and effectively deal with offenders.

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 CRIME HEADINGS (UCR)
• The following are Part II criminal offenses: • Other assaults (simple) • Forgery and
counterfeiting • Corporate fraud • Embezzlement • Buying, receiving, and possessing
stolen property • Vandalism • Possession and carrying of a weapon • Prostitution and
commercialized vice • Drug abuse violations • Gambling • Nonviolent and unlawful
offenses against family and children• Driving under the influence • Liquor law
violations • Drunkenness • Disorderly conduct • Vagrancy • All other violations of
state or local laws not specified (except traffic violations) • Suspicion, that is, arrested
and released without formal charges • Curfew violations and loitering • Runaways

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 CRIME HEADINGS

• The UCR program offers more than Part I offenses and consist of 22 crimes covering 46
offenses, some of which are listed here:

• Homicide (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, negligent manslaughter,

justifiable homicide [which is not a crime]) • Sex offenses, forcible (forcible rape,
forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object, forcible fondling) • Robbery • Assault
(aggravated, simple, intimidation) • Burglary/breaking and entering • Larceny–theft •
Motor vehicle theft • Arson • Bribery • Sex offense, nonforcible •

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CRIME HEADINGS
• Counterfeiting/forgery • Destruction/damage/vandalism of property
• Drug/narcotic offenses • Pornography/obscene material •
Prostitution • Embezzlement • Extortion/blackmail • Fraud •
Gambling offenses • Kidnapping/abduction • Stolen property
offenses • Weapon law violations
• Group B comprises 11 offenses and covers all crime that does not fall
into Group A offenses: • Bad checks • Curfew/loitering/vagrancy •
Disorderly conduct • Driving under the influence • Drunkenness •
Family offense/nonviolent • Liquor law violations • Peeping tom •
Runaway • Trespass of real property • All other offenses

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CRIME STATISTICS: SOURCES, DIFFICULTIES AND
NEED, PROBLEMS OF RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY
• The statistics about crime and delinquency are probably the most unreliable and
most difficult of all social statistics.

• It is impossible to determine with accuracy the amount of crime in any given

jurisdiction at any particular time.

• Some behaviour is labelled as delinquency or crime by one observer but not by

other.
CRIME STATISTICS Contd…

• A large proportion of law violations go undetected. Other crimes are

detected but not reported, and still others are reported but not
officially recorded.

• Any record of crimes, such as crimes known to police, arrests,

convictions, or commitments to prison, can at most be considered an
index of the crime actually committed.
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CRIMES KNOWN TO POLICE

• The crimes which are reported to the police and recorded by the police are
designated “Crimes Known to Police”.

• To use them is the best way out of the bad situation.

• The number of crimes known to the police is certainly much smaller than the
number actually committed.

• Arrests are made in only a small proportions of all the crimes which become
known to the police.

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WHY CRIME NOT REPORTED TO POLICE
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, fellow employee,
they may wish to avoid publicity which might result if the crime
were reported.
They might have agreed to the crime, as in gambling and some
sexual offences,
they may wish to avoid the inconvenience of calling the police,
appearing as a witness, and so on:
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WHY CRIME NOT REPORTED TO POLICE
• they may be intimidated by the offender,
• they may be antagonistic to the police or opposed to the punitive policies of the
legal system;
• or they may feel that the police are so inefficient that they will be unable to catch
the offender even if the offense is reported.
• The police themselves overlook many offenses, often because “enforcing law”
would be unfair to the suspect,
• because the law is vague,
• because booking the offender would be too much work or because arresting the
offender is too dangerous.

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WHY CRIME NOT REPORTED TO POLICE
• During house robbery, rape not reported due to family honour
• Blackmailing due to nude pics…not reported

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STATISTICS RELIABILITY
• Police have an obligation to protect the reputation of their cities, and when this
cannot be done efficiently under existing administrative machinery, it is
sometimes accomplished statistically.

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STATISTICS RELIABILITY
• Politicians up for re-election are likely to be accused of neglect of duty if the
crime rate has gone up during their administration, and they are likely to be
praised if the crime rate has declined. Consequently, political administrations
often try to show statistically that during their term in officer the crime rate
declined. Individual police officers select out for recording and further processing
only a proportion of the crimes, and delinquencies

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STATISTICS RELIABILITY
• The values of crimes known to the police as an index of crime is sharply limited
by the fact that the ratio of crimes committed to crimes reported and recorded
varies according to offense.

• In the first place, some offenses, such as murder, are more likely to be discovered
than others.

• More generally, the meaning which people attach to criminal behaviours- how
serious, harmful, or immoral they are perceived to be- also dramatically
influences whether acts become known and recorded.
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IN SUFFICIENCY OF POLICE TO PROCESS
CRIMES
• The organization of control agencies affects the volume of crime known to the
police.

• The sheer number of police officers obviously affects how much crime is
processed, especially if these officers work during the night, when the true crime
rate is likely to be high.

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VARIATION IN THE CRIMINAL LAWS
• Variations in the criminal law may affect the volume of crimes known to the
police, reducing the value of measure for comparative purposes.

• Behaviour which is a crime in one place or time may not be a crime in another
place or time;

• difference reduces the value of crimes known to the police for long-range
comparative purposes.

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CRIME-POPULATION RATIO
• The number of crimes known to the police must, for purposes of comparison, be
stated in proportion to the population or to some other base, and the
determination of this base is often difficult.

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Sources of statistics on crime in Pakistan
• Police, Court, Prison, may publish their statistics or report to a central
agency like bureau of statistics Which organizes, combines, and
publishes the statistics from many agencies.
• Only rarely do the local or central agencies do more than catalogue
the incidence of various crimes.
• Computation of rates, analysis of interrelationships between various
statistical facts, and the making of inferences about the statistics are
left to outside research workers.

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OTHER SOURCES..
• Sociologists in recent years have devised methods of data collection which make
it unnecessary to rely upon arrest statistics and other compilations in order to
study delinquency and crime. Studies using techniques such as participant
observation, interviews, questionnaires, surveys of unreported crimes and
victimization, and plain logical argument have given a broader perspective on the
“Crime Problem”.

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OTHER SOURCES…PAKISTAN
• Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) Karachi, NGOs working on child, women
rights etc collect relevant crime data

• Insurance Companies collect vehicle theft data for vehicles ensured by them, for
recovery

• 15 Police Control where public can lodge complaints of crimes

• Public complaints at different forums for non registration of crimes

• PTCL…for mobile phones closures requests due to being stolen.

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OTHER SOURCES…PAKISTAN

• No. of Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) forums (Jirgas)for

redressing complaints resolving disputes indicates crimes committed
whether registered or not by police.

• Hospitals for traffic accidents, and minor injuries in disputes. In some

cases people might have gone to hospital but not to police.

• Court records/ applications for registration of crime 22A Cr. P.C

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