Police Statistics Overstate Criminality – Say It isn’t So!
November 16th, 2009 by SocProf and tagged Social Deviance, Social Research
L’augmentation des violences interpersonnelles est infirmée par les enquêtes de victimation – Délinquance, justice et autres questions de société via kwout
Let me translate this real quick: police statistics state that interpersonal aggressions (verbal or physical) increased by 25% between 2001 and 2008 in the greater Paris region with similar proportions nationwide. However, victimization studies reveal a different trend: stability. All types of aggression have decreased from 6.7% in 2001 to 6.4% in 2009. This almost perfect stability is found category of aggressions by category.
So does one explain all this? As the report states,
The first thing to conclude is that police statistics are not the best tool to measure the evolution of delinquency (what a surprise) and yet, politicians based their communication almost entirely on these, especially when it suits their purposes (such as, for instance, claiming huge spike in the amorphous “insecurity” right before an election).
The second thing to note is that an increase in complaint filing for aggression does not mean a corresponding increase in aggressive behavior but might be more revealing of a trend towards the criminalization of any type of behavior judged deviant.
Posted in Social Deviance, Social Research, Social Sanctions | No Comments »
