Abstract
This chapter discusses the basis of criminal statistics. The statistics relating to crime and criminals reflect the action and decisions of many types of persons, besides the criminals themselves, and it is important to bear this in mind when analyzing and interpreting figures. A large number of offenses that are committed do not find their way into the criminal statistics because they are not reported to the police. This is called the “dark figure” of crime. The reporting of a number of offenses depends on deliberate action on the part of people responsible for law enforcement. In particular, the number of shoplifting offenses reported depends greatly on the policy of particular shops in the employment of store detectives and methods of dealing with suspects. Methods of recording the statistics of criminal offenses are different; no central record is kept of most non-indictable offenses in England and Wales, and there is no justification for comparing the number of indictable offenses in England and Wales with the number of crimes in Scotland.
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