Dark Figure of Crime

The amount of crime in society gets known when it is reported to the police, through public response to victim surveys and studies of offenders who admit committing crime, and when transmitted to other agencies, such as hospital accident wards, battered women's refuge centers and similar ones (Young 2001). Other than these, the amount of crime committed is unknown. That unknown volume (of crime) that does not get reported, thus not registered, in criminal statistics, constitutes the dark figure of crime.

Statistician Adolphe Quetelet of the 1830s recognized this problem and modern statisticians do, too. All current methods of collecting crime incidence still have a dark figure. Victimization surveys, like the British Crime Survey (BCS) and the National Crime Survey (NCS) are more accurate (Young). In 2000, BCS estimated that the dark figure, or the actual extent of crime, was 4 1/2 more than what was...
[ View Full Essay]