Empirical, untestable, testable, noncausal relationships, causal relationships,
cumulative, subjective, objective
The Official Statistics
Debate
• Relevant names and issues to mention
in your essay work.
Who gathers statistics?
• The government gathers statistics from the
police.
• It commissions research projects from
university researchers and teachers.
• Other agencies concerned with crime gather
statistics.
Statistics: a social construction
• Statistics may appear to be facts.
• However, statistics are not fully reliable as
they are socially constructed by the people
who gather the data.
What do statistics measure?
• Statistics measure crimes.
• Crimes are socially defined, what is a crime
will vary according to changes in norms,
values and mores.
• Things are made criminal, and they are
legalised as society changes.
The case of domestic violence
• There are more reported cases of domestic
violence than in the 1970s.
• Is there more violence?
• Probably not – the police did not act on
reports of domestic violence and many
women regarded violence as a ‘normal’ part
of marriage.
Jock Young
• Jock Young (1994) pointed out that laws have
been created, often quickly and without
forethought, in response to moral panics or to
political events.
• Examples include various laws against
terrorism
Stephen Moore
• Stephen Moore points out that the police play
a very significant part in the social
construction of crime and deviance because it
is they who record reported crimes.
Atkinson
• Atkinson criticised Durkheim’s study of
Suicide.
• He said that Coroners create a definition of a
typical suicide and then categorise individual
deaths according to that social construction.
Frances Heidensohn
• Heidensohn says that the police have a powerful
‘canteen’ culture, which has elements of
masculinism, authoritarianism, intolerance of ethnic
minorities, a desire for excitement and strong
notions of law enforcement.
• They will therefore categorise acts as criminal on the
basis of these perceptions
Howard Becker
• Becker pointed out that delinquent boys were
less likely to be charged if they behaved with a
sufficiently cooperative and pleasant manner
and if they were seen as basically ‘good’ than
if they were aggressive or hostile.
How do we know about crime?
• Official Statistics
• Victim Studies
• Self Report Studies
Official Statistics
• Tell us about patterns of reporting, recording
and conviction.
• We learn about public and police practice.
• They give us a base line from which to work.
Victim studies
• The best known is the biennial British Crime Survey.
• This is available on-line.
• Adults from a large sample report which crimes they
have experienced.
• They also report which crimes they have told the
police about – this is usually less than half the crime
experienced.
The British Crime Survey
• The statistically average person aged 16 or over can expect
– a robbery once every five centuries (not attempts)
– an asssault resulting in injury (even if slight) once every
century
– a family car to be stolen or taken by once every 60 years
– a burglary in the home once every forty years
• This glosses over the fact that some people are considerably
more at risk than others.
The Islington Crime Survey
• Conducted by Jones et al (1986)
• Islington is the seventh most deprived area in England).
• The researchers found higher levels of victimisation and
multiple victimisation amongst women, ethnic minorities and
the poor.
• Burglary, robbery, or sexual assault had touched a third of all
households within the last twelve months.
Feminists and victim studies
• Feminist researchers such as Hanmer and
Saunders 1984, Hall 1985 suggest levels of
sexual crime against women are far higher
that those revealed by national victim surveys
and infinitely higher that those indicated by
police records.
Fear of crime
• The British Crime Survey shows that older women
tend to be the most afraid.
• Younger men - who are most likely to end up victim
in a violent or criminal incident on the street - are
the least likely to admit fear.
• However the repercussions for older people may be
more serious if a crime is committed.
Self Report studies
• Ordinary people are asked what crimes they
have committed.
• These reveal high levels of petty criminality.
• They tend to focus on minor misdemeanours
rather than serious acts of deviance.
Hypothetico-Deductive Method
• Match the suicide activity
Starter – with the person next to you discuss and note
down why suicide is an issue in crime and deviance and
reasons why someone might attempt suicide.
Learning objective –
To understand the positivist explanations and methodology
for suicide.
• Learning outcomes –
• I will be able to identify the positivist method and explanations for
suicide – E
• I will be able to explain how Durkheim studied suicide – C-D
• I will be able to evaluate Durkheim's methodological approach and
explanation for suicide – A-B
Task
Published in 1897, Emile Durkheim's Suicide: A Study in Sociology was the first major
sociological study of suicide. Keen to establish the value of a sociological approach,
Durkheim chose suicide, a highly personal act, which seemed more suited to a
psychological rather than a sociological explanation. If he could show that suicide was
linked to society, rather than simply to individual psychology, then the value of
sociology would be established.
In The Rules of the Sociological Method, Durkheim outlined the rules that sociologists
should follow in order for sociology to become a science. In his words, The first and
most fundamental rule is: Consider social facts as things. Social facts include the
norms, values and institutions of society. Durkheim found correlations between
suicide rates and a range of social facts. He claimed that these correlations indicated
causal relationships. For example, an individual's) religion, marital status, family size
and age can all be used as measures of their level of integration in society. And in each
case, the lower the level of integration, the higher the ‘rate of suicide’. In Durkheim's
words, 'suicide varies inversely with the degree of integration of the social groups of
which the individual is a part'.
Durkheim used European suicide statistics to study suicide. In pairs, look at the
numerous statistics on suicide and identify any facts and figures which might explain
suicide rates. If you can, try and identify any possible reasons.
Task
From the statistics, Durkheim identified 4 categories for the types of suicide. There were ways he found
which helped him categories them. These were ....
•Suicide and society (The answer for suicide lays in the relationship between society and the individual);
•Integration (how strongly or weakly individuals are bound to society) and
•Regulation (how much or not society controls its members)
Now, copy the four types of suicide and add in the correct definition and examples below.
Altruistic (too
much
integration)
Anomic (too
little regulation)
Type of suicide
Fatalistic (too
much
regulation)
Egoistic (too
little
integration)
Means ....
•The individual stands alone.
•The individual acts
unselfishly and as a sense of
duty.
•The individual has a sudden
change in their lives.
•The individual believes
nothing can be done and
suicide offers an escape.
Now add in two examples of types
of suicide for each category.
Task
Read the following extract which challenges Durkheim's categorisation. Why is this?
Suicide bombings can be categorised as an extreme form of political protest.
They appear to fit into Durkheim's category of altruistic suicide - acts by
people who are so highly integrated into a group that they are prepared to
sacrifice their own lives to further its cause. The hopelessness experienced
by some might also give ground for interpreting these suicides as fatalistic the actions of people who feel trapped in a repressive regime, which is how
Palestinians would undoubtedly describe the state of Israel. Alternatively,
their suicides could also be described as anomic - the result of living in a
society undergoing dramatic and disorientating social change. They could be
egoistic, if the desire for reward in Paradise is the bombers' highest
motivation. Source: Swale, 2004
Now, pick one of the
A Palestinian suicide bomber
examples of suicide from
the previous activity. Can
it fit more than one
category?
Task
Not only has Durkheim’s explanation for suicide been criticised, but his
methodological approach has too. In a table below, include four methodological
advantages and disadvantages for his positivist approach. The first one has been
done for you (you can use page 218 for help).
Advantages
Representative
Disadvantages
Every act of suicide is an
individual case/act, statistics
are not the way to investigate
it.