Evaluate Methods of Collecting Statistics About Crime

Collection Methods

Official Statistics: Collected by the government, but might only show a part of the picture as they are often based on reported crimes.
Victim Surveys: They include unreported crime but rely on honesty and recall ability of the respondent.
Self-report studies: They might bring light to unreported crimes, dependent on accuracy of responses.
Local records: Information collected by schools, hospitals, etc., may provide more specific, localised details about crime.

Validity of methods: Question the accuracy and whether or not they truly measure crime. For instance, official statistics only record reported and discovered crimes.
Reliability of methods: Consider whether the method would produce same results if repeated. For instance, victim surveys might fluctuate depending on the sample size and demographic.
Sampling issues: Different samples can yield different results. For instance, a victim survey in a crime-ridden area would likely show higher crime rates than a survey in a more affluent area.
Ethical considerations: Is it right to ask people about their criminal activities through self-report studies? There are concerns here regarding both legality and morality.
Bias in data collection: Certain types of crime or demographics may be over-represented or under-represented in the data due to biases in collection methods.

Key points to remember include:

There are different methods of collecting crime statistics, and each comes with its own strengths and weaknesses.
Data on crime is not always a true reflexion of the actual levels of crime due to factors such as unreported crime and differences in collection methods.
It is important to consider not just the data itself, but how it is collected, when analysing crime statistics. It is the context that often provides the most revealing information.