This chapter focuses on one of the most popular of crime statistics—the crime rate—which provides an index of crime occurring in a particular jurisdiction for a specific time period. It discusses the nature of crime statistics; counting crime; recording incidents as criminal offences; reporting crime to the police; the frequency of crime victimization; and the rate of crime victimization.
Chapter
3. What do crime statistics tell us?
Tim Hope
Chapter
16. Violent, aggressive and sexual offences
This chapter shows that, although psychological explanations have been used to explain various types of criminal or deviant behaviour, it is violent and sexual offences that are most frequently subjected to analysis. Many crimes involve behaviour that was formerly considered perfectly acceptable, but which society has subsequently decided to criminalise. However, psychological theories are particularly suitable for explaining unusual behaviour that often appears aggressive and is likely to be deprecated in most countries. Some may indulge in a range of criminal offences that many people find easy to understand, if not condone: crimes against property—which make up the bulk of recorded criminal offences—being perhaps the best example of this. Despite the fact that violence was far more common in earlier centuries, many people nowadays find excessively violent and sexual crimes far more difficult to comprehend.
