Comparisons between survey estimates of crime and crimes recorded by the police: the UK position

Book synopsis: The second half of the 20th century has witnessed a watershed in the systematic study of crime. Until then, crime estimates were locked up in an administrative monopoly: the only available figures resulted from counting the activities of various criminal justice agencies. By contrast, from then on, alternative measurement methods were developed based on general population surveys, which severed the crime estimates’ dependency on the operation of the police or the courts. However, widening the range of the tools used for measuring crime will only be fruitful if their consideration proceeds beyond mere juxtaposition, towards genuine comparison. This volume accounts for the comparisons performed in a number of European countries between official criminal statistics and victimisation surveys