Essay on the Scope of Criminal Statistics !
Crime statistics are the indices of intensity of crimes recorded annually in a particular country, region or place. They reflect upon the ascending or descending trends in crime and also give information as to how new forms of crime are emerging and the old ones are disappearing or assuming new dimensions. According to Donald Taft, crime statistics are indicative of the general moral-tune of a given society and throw light on the general efficacy of police, prosecuting agencies and law courts.
Therefore, the role of crime statistics in analysing causation of crime and devising measures to combat criminality need not be over-emphasised. The statistics of crime help the law enforcement agencies to spot out the preponderance of crime at a particular time, place and region.
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Some criminologists have expressed different views about the scope of criminal statistics. Some of them assert that the data should mainly concern with offences and offenders, administrative actions and decisions of the Courts, while others maintain that it should only be limited to offenders and convicted persons.
However, the generally accepted view is that crime statistics should not only be confined to data on offences and offenders but also include numerical figures pertaining to the criminal law administration agencies such as police, prosecution, courts, parole and probation services, juvenile delinquency, prisons, drug law violations and trafficking records etc.
The data so presented should be scientifically classified, tabulated and analysed so as to present a realistic picture of crime situation of a particular region or country. The periodical publication of such statistics is equally important so that the criminal law agencies may utilise it to the best of their advantage for combating crimes.
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Emphasising the need for crime statistics in the field of criminology Donald Taft observed that quantification which includes counting, measuring and collating the phenomena under study is the basic process in modern scientific approach to criminal science. Without this process, investigative efforts would hardly serve any useful purpose.
Crime statistics, therefore, involve compiling crime-record in order to relate them to time, place and circumstances. It informs us about the magnitude of crime and the extent to which they change in terms of time, place and location. Crime statistics also depict the picture of distribution of crimes in different areas, regions, and locations.
It must, however, be stated that mathematical accuracy of crime figures at a given place and time is rather difficult to ascertain. These statistics only present an over-all picture of incidence of crime and make it possible to compare the crime rate at regional, national and international level.
Speaking about the importance of periodical statistical records of prisons and prisoners, Bentham observed:
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“The ordering of these returns is a measure of excellent use in furnishing data for the legislature to work upon. They will form together a kind of political barometer by which the effect of every legislative operation relative to the subject may be indicated and made palatable. It is not till lately the legislators have thought of providing themselves with necessary documents.”
Thus, it would be seen that crime statistics provide a useful guideline for the legislators and criminal law administrators to fight against criminality and find effective anti-dote of crimes.
Pointing out the significance of statistical data on crime and criminals, Edwin Sutherland observed that these statistics are sometimes usefully utilised in the formulation of social policies and theories of criminality. Besides, it also provides valuable source-material for crime investigators.
The social information contained in them forms the basis of extensive research in the field of criminology. In the absence of statistical record of crime it would become virtually impossible to form any valid opinion about the crime picture in a given place.