Something to bear in mind the next time you are told crime is down
"The [British Crime Survey] does not cover commercial victimisation, e.g. thefts from businesses and shops, and frauds".
Yes, really. There it is on page 19 of the British Crime Survey. Note also that in the same paragraph it "excludes crimes termed as victimless (e.g. possession of drugs) and, as a victim
based survey, murders are not included". So a publication with the Home Office's logo regards drugs crime as victimless.
I have been looking at the statistics on drug use the BCS has madeup available, and might do something with those later, but in the meantime note that it only asks people below the age of 60 if they have ever taken drugs (and no one would lie to someone who says 'I'm here from the government', would they?) , and therefore would exclude, inter alia, the founders of the Rolling Stones, the remaining Beatles and folk who were 21 during the Summer of Love.
Yes, really. There it is on page 19 of the British Crime Survey. Note also that in the same paragraph it "excludes crimes termed as victimless (e.g. possession of drugs) and, as a victim
based survey, murders are not included". So a publication with the Home Office's logo regards drugs crime as victimless.
I have been looking at the statistics on drug use the BCS has made
Labels: crime and punishment, drugs
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on Thursday, November 01, 2007 at 2:06 pm.
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Unbelievable. How can a British Crime Survey not include thefts from shops and businesses. They are just as much a crime as thefts from homes.
How can murder be classed as victimless. The person murdered is unlikely to agree.
Other shortcomings of the British Crime Survey are that it doesn't cover certain types of victims, notably under 16s but also non residents of the UK who may be victimised whilst visiting. Repeat victims are seriously under counted. It has a significant non response rate which is higher in high crime neighbourhoods.
It is also of only limited value for any crime seeing as people's recall of offences committed against them some time ago is quite weak especially for less serious crimes.
I had a post about the shortcomings of the BCS earlier this year, and basically whilst it is by no means a worthless survey it is not the all encompassing measure of crime that the government and parts of the media have pretended that it is. It cannot be used for example to claim that rises in crimes recorder by the police don't matter because the BCS is more accurate.
Cheer up! This means killing Home Office Officials is a 'Victimless Crime'.
" Home Office Officials "?
Crikey, I'd aim a bit higher!
;^)
?
Does that mean that the injured on 7 July are counted, but the dead are not? Are not the family of the mudered considered victims?
Someone killing my cow is of more interest than someone killing my mother?
Next you'll be telling us that damage to cars during daylight hours is excluded, or similar.
Could an acedemic team be given access to analyse police records? Oh, silly me: the "G"ovt would never allow it...
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