Official Crime Rates are figures created by using the methods of research; official statistics, victim surveys and self-report studies. Each of these methods has their strengths and weaknesses, ensuring that the uses of these are not always valid or reliable when looking at Official Crime Rates. However, it does give a glance on the society we live in. "The broken society is back at the top of my agenda," Mr. Cameron said, during his campaign for general election 2010. His main emphasis for saying this was the riot that shook the entire system, it was an unexpected event, which did make everyone question whether the Britain was a safe place to live. The intention of this essay will be to explain different types of crime rates methods, supporting each with examples. It will associate whether the method is reliable and if the society could be judged by those methods. It will also include Durkheim's theory to support the statement. .
Official Statistics form of quantitative data that are collected by the police and published by the home office every six months. Official statistics are useful in determining the changing rate of crime in certain areas over the six-month periods. They can also help to highlight police bias whilst at the same time seeing how useful laws and policies that the government implements are. As such they are extremely useful in determining the reliability of official crime rates, as when looking at websites, such as www.police.uk, where the statistics are available for the public to look at, it is possible to see the recorded statistics for a few months and because they are recorded they will never change. Functionalists (Durkheim's theory) find Official Statistics extremely useful when looking at crime rates, saying that they helps society to combat crime and that they are good for society. .
Durkheim's theory supports the statement that crime is normal. According to him people react to crime the same way our legal forces such as police officers or even the prime minister reacts to crimes.