Victim Surveys and Police Statistics (From Victims and Criminal Justice, P 405-417, 1991, Gunther Kaiser, Helmut Kury, et al., eds. -- See NCJ-132477)

• NCJ Number: 132492
• Author(s): K Sveri
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Max-Planck-Institute Fur Auslandisches und Internationales Strafrecht
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: Germany (Unified)

Annotation

This paper examines the nature of police crime statistics and crime statistics derived from victimization surveys, considers "unexplainable" differences between the two types of data collection, and offers suggestions for improving the use of these two sources of crime statistics.

Abstract

Victimological surveys were begun to provide better information on personal crimes and provide a check on official police crime statistics. Although the surveys have provided more information on criminal victimizations in a populace, there have been problems in using them as supplements to or in combination with police statistics. The problem arises in part because the crimes which victimization-survey respondents say they have reported to the police often do not appear in police records. Also, offense classifications may not be the same in the police records and the victimization surveys. In terms of the practical use of the two sources of crime and offense statistics, rarely do policymakers use the two data sources in tandem. Agencies tend to use one source or the other depending on their orientation or purposes in using the statistics. If maximum use is to be made of the two sets of information, efforts must be coordinated to streamline the police statistics and the victim surveys so they can be easily compared and used in combination to provide more complete information than either can provide alone. 3 tables and 12 references