The Dark Figure of Crime

Paper Summary:

This paper talks about the distorted picture created of the crime conditions in Europe and, in particular, in Britain, as a result of the volume of crimes that are committed, but unreported. The paper explains some of the reasons that crimes go unreported and how these unreported crimes, commonly referred to as 'the dark figure of crime', affect the overall picture of crime in a country. An example is given of U.S. crime rates, where violent crime rates have always been perceived to be high, but, in actuality, are lower than violent crime rates in industrialized nations in Europe.

From the Paper:

"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."

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