Commentary
| Published date | 01 February 1964 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6403700201 |
| Date | 01 February 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Commentary |
THE
POUUE
.JouBNAL
VOL.
XXXVII,
No.2
FEBRUARY 1964
Measuring Crime
The consistency with which criminologists and other critics
disparage the national records of
"crimes
known to the
police"
\
]rompts
the thought that some economies might be sought in this
particular statistical activity. Could not, for instance, the dubious
matter be kept apart from the matter whose accuracy is accepted?
As things stand the value of the whole return is prejudiced by the
suspicion which falls on a part of it. We are inclined to think that it
is this suspicion which makes the annual volumes of the Criminal
Statistics with their supplementary tables amongst the least-read of
H.M.S.O.'s publications.
Criminologists invariably conclude from Table A and the graphs
on"
offencesknown to the police" (which, incidentally, show that no
more than 43 per cent. of these are cleared up) that they represent
only a fraction, of unknown
value-and
often a very small
one-of
the total crimes committed. The Assistant Director of Research
in Criminology at Cambridge University, Mr. F. H. McClintock,
when addressing police authorities and chief officers, spoke
of
the
growing public interest in criminology and discussed some
of
the
questions that people are asking: How much crime is committed,
and where, and by whom? To get a record of crime means that it
must have been observed by the police or have been reported to
them; the unrecorded crime is regarded as a "
dark"
figure, varying
from one group of offencesto another. In sexual offencesthis might
be as high as 95 per cent. and
it
is known that large numbers of
larcenies are never reported. Mr. McClintock quoted the saying
that delinquency is like an iceberg, which is a very alarming simile
indeed when it is remembered how much of an iceberg is out of
sight.
The Home Secretary last year appointed adepartmental com-
mittee to inquire and report on the criminal statistics and the Police
Bill includes a clause, which in effect re-enacts s. 14
of
the County
and Borough Police Act of 1856,requiring chief officersof police to
send to the Home
Office
such particulars of offences, offenders,
criminal proceedings and the state of crime as the Secretary of State
may direct. An interesting and new requirement of the Bill is that
February 1964 49
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