Uses and Abuses of Crime Statistics
Publication year:
2011
| Cataloged on:
Mar. 15, 2012
ANNOTATION: “This bulletin should help readers obtain a better understanding of the use of crime statistics, while strengthening their capacity to spot instances of flagrant abuse” (p. 15). Sections of this report cover: the diversity of crime; sources of information about crime; the reliability of these sources; measuring trends in crime; uses of crime statistics—measuring crime trends, measuring variation in prevalence, determining who is most at risk, mapping the distribution of crime, evaluating law and order policy, and testing hypotheses about crime; and abuses of crime statistics—selective use of data, selective reporting of facts, misleading commentary, misrepresentation of facts, misleading headlines, exploiting the lag in reporting, and misuse of drug enforcement statistics.
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