TY - JOUR
T1 - Trends in violent crime
T2 - a comparison between police statistics and victimization surveys
AU - Wittebrood, Karin
AU - Junger, Marianne
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - Usually, two measures are used to describetrends in violent crime: police statistics andvictimization surveys. Both are available inthe Netherlands. In this contribution, we willfirst provide a description of the trends inviolent crime. It appears that both types ofstatistics reflect a different trend in thedevelopment of violence over the past twodecades. According to police statistics,violent crime has increased considerably,whilst the victimization surveys show thatviolent crime has not undergone any increase.In the second part of the paper, a number ofhypotheses are considered which could explainthe discrepancies between violence asregistered by the police and violence shown invictimization surveys. Methodological problemsinvolving both data sources are also discussed.In summary, we suggest that the increase inviolent crime as shown by police statistics isin part due to more professional registrationbased on an increased willingness to reportcrimes, and increased computerization, whichfacilitates registration. We suggest thatalthough violence may have increased, thisincrease is not likely to be as high assuggested by police statistics
AB - Usually, two measures are used to describetrends in violent crime: police statistics andvictimization surveys. Both are available inthe Netherlands. In this contribution, we willfirst provide a description of the trends inviolent crime. It appears that both types ofstatistics reflect a different trend in thedevelopment of violence over the past twodecades. According to police statistics,violent crime has increased considerably,whilst the victimization surveys show thatviolent crime has not undergone any increase.In the second part of the paper, a number ofhypotheses are considered which could explainthe discrepancies between violence asregistered by the police and violence shown invictimization surveys. Methodological problemsinvolving both data sources are also discussed.In summary, we suggest that the increase inviolent crime as shown by police statistics isin part due to more professional registrationbased on an increased willingness to reportcrimes, and increased computerization, whichfacilitates registration. We suggest thatalthough violence may have increased, thisincrease is not likely to be as high assuggested by police statistics
KW - n/a OA procedure
U2 - 10.1023/A:1016207225351
DO - 10.1023/A:1016207225351
M3 - Article
SN - 0303-8300
VL - 59
SP - 153
EP - 173
JO - Social indicators research
JF - Social indicators research
IS - 2
ER -
