Brunton-Smith, I. orcid.org/0000-0002-0077-5602, Cernat, A. orcid.org/0000-0003-2176-1215, Pina-Sánchez, J. et al. (1 more author) (2024) Estimating the Reliability of Crime Data in Geographic Areas. The British Journal of Criminology, 64 (6). pp. 1347-1361. ISSN 0007-0955
Abstract
Crime data are problematic: Crimes that are never reported undermine its validity and differences in police recording practices affect its reliability. However, the true extent of these problems is not well known, with existing studies suffering from a number of methodological limitations. We examine the quality of police recorded crime data and survey-based crime estimates recorded in England and Wales using a robust latent trait model that effectively represents the competing sources of error. We find that whilst crime rates derived from police data systematically underestimate the true extent of crime, they are substantially more reliable than estimates from survey data. Reliability is lower for violence and criminal damage and is getting worse over time.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). This is an author produced version of an article accepted for publication in The British Journal of Criminology. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | criminal, statistics, reliability, validity, regions, UK |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Law (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) ES/T015667/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 11 Jun 2024 09:43 |
Last Modified: | 10 Dec 2024 14:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/bjc/azae018 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:213252 |
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Filename: BJC-2023-0247 - Estimating the Reliability of Crime Data in Geographic Areas_revised.pdf
