Most crimes never reach the police. So how can anyone count crime?

Five types of crime

• A crime is an act that breaks the law and can be punished by the state.
• OCR groups offences into five types:

Crime as a social construct

• A social construct is an idea a society creates, not a fixed fact.
• Crime is deviation from norms (unwritten social rules) that has been made law. Queue-jumping breaks a norm, but no law.
• Culture: alcohol is legal for UK adults but illegal in Kuwait.
• Time: sex between men in private was partly decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967; smoking in enclosed public places was banned in England in 2007.

Official statistics

• Official statistics are crimes recorded by the police, published by the ONS for England and Wales.
• A crime counts only if it is reported and then recorded. Crime missing from police records is the dark figure.
• Only about 36% of incidents in the Crime Survey for England and Wales were reported to the police (ONS, 2026).
• Strength: useful for serious crimes such as murder. Weakness: recording rule changes alter totals.

Self-report

• In a self-report study, people answer questionnaires or interviews about crimes they have committed (offender surveys) or experienced (victim surveys, such as the Crime Survey for England and Wales).
• Strength: reveals crimes nobody told the police about, so it helps to estimate the dark figure.
• Weaknesses: people may forget or exaggerate, and social desirability leads some to hide offences to look good. Answers cannot be checked.

Nobody is born knowing how to shoplift. So who teaches it?

Learning by watching

• Social learning theory (Bandura, 1977): behaviour, including crime, is learned by watching others.
• A role model is someone we look up to, such as a parent, older sibling, friend or celebrity.
• Identification: we copy people we feel similar to or want to be like.
• Observational learning: we watch how the role model behaves. Modelling (imitation): we later copy that behaviour.

Consequences you see, and consequences you get

• Vicarious reinforcement: seeing a role model rewarded for a behaviour makes us more likely to imitate it. Seeing them punished makes imitation less likely.
• Example: an older friend steals trainers and is admired by the group.
• Direct reinforcement: when we copy the behaviour and are rewarded ourselves, we are likely to repeat it.
• Internalisation: after repeated reinforcement, the behaviour becomes part of our own values and continues without reward.

Nature or nurture?

• Social learning theory takes the nurture side: criminal behaviour is learned from the environment, through role models, reinforcement and internalisation.
• Strength: it explains why offending often runs in families and friendship groups, and why it can be unlearned.
• Weakness: it ignores nature. Biological factors, such as inherited personality (Eysenck), may explain why people in the same environment behave differently.

Could a personality test predict who ends up in court?

Three dimensions of personality

• Eysenck measured personality with a questionnaire, scoring people along dimensions.
• Extraversion: sociable, lively, seeks excitement. At the other end, introversion: quiet, reserved, avoids stimulation.
• Neuroticism: anxious, moody, emotionally unstable. The other end is emotional stability.
• Psychoticism: cold, aggressive, lacking empathy.

The criminal personality

• Eysenck (1964, adding psychoticism later) proposed that offenders tend to score high on extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism.
• High extraversion: seeks thrills and takes risks.
• High neuroticism: reacts strongly and unpredictably to stress.
• High psychoticism: cold and aggressive, with little guilt about hurting others.
• A stable introvert (low on all three) is the least likely to offend.

Born with it, shaped by childhood

• Eysenck said personality is largely inherited: it comes from the nervous system we are born with, making this a biological explanation.
• Extraverts have an under-aroused nervous system, so they seek extra stimulation.
• High E and high N children are harder to condition, so they learn less from punishment.
• Poor socialisation follows: they don't learn to link wrongdoing with anxiety, so they develop a weaker conscience.

The brain behind the traits

• Extraversion: the reticular activation system (RAS) in the brainstem controls how aroused the cerebral cortex is. Extraverts have low cortical arousal, and dopamine reward systems make thrills feel rewarding.
• Neuroticism: a reactive autonomic nervous system and limbic system trigger fast, strong fight-or-flight responses.
• Psychoticism: an overactive dopamine system, with too much dopamine at synapses between dopaminergic neurons, reduces inhibition.

Many people leave prison and offend again. What might work better?

Recidivism and the aims of punishment

• Recidivism means reoffending after being punished for a crime.
• Punishment aims to deter (put the offender and others off), incapacitate (stop them offending, e.g. prison), give retribution (deserved payback) and rehabilitate (help the person change).
• The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) measures proven reoffending: a new offence within a year that leads to a conviction or caution.
• A deterrent works only if people weigh up the consequences before acting.

Prison

• Prison removes freedom: it incapacitates offenders and is meant to deter.
• Reoffending within a year: 40.6% of adults released from custody (MoJ, 2026), and much higher after sentences under 12 months.
• Strength: protects the public; time for education and treatment.
• Weakness: offenders may learn crime from other prisoners, and lose jobs, homes and family links.

Punishment in the community

• A community sentence is served outside prison: unpaid work, a curfew, or drug or alcohol treatment.
• Strength: the offender keeps a job and family. A MoJ study (2019) found similar offenders reoffended less after a court order than after a short prison sentence.
• Weakness: may be seen as a soft option that fails to deter.
• A fine takes money: suits minor offences, but may barely affect wealthy people.

Restorative justice

• In restorative justice, a trained facilitator brings the offender and victim together (or they exchange letters). The offender hears the harm caused and makes amends.
• Strength: in UK trials most victims who took part were satisfied, and reoffending fell slightly.
• Weakness: both sides must agree; offenders may fake remorse to look good.
• It is a form of rehabilitation: it aims to increase pro-social behaviour, not just punish.

Rehabilitation and positive role models

• Rehabilitation helps offenders change through education, job training, therapy and treatment for addiction.
• Positive role models, such as mentors who have stopped offending themselves, show pro-social behaviour that offenders can imitate (social learning theory).
• Strength: tackles the causes of crime and builds pro-social behaviour.
• Weakness: needs funding and the offender's motivation; it is hard to tell which part worked.

Big ideas

• Crime falls into types (violent, drug-related, acquisitive, sexual, anti-social), and what counts as crime is a social construct that varies with culture and time.
• Official statistics count crimes the police record; self-report surveys ask people about crimes they have committed or experienced.
• Each method misses different crimes, so psychologists use both to estimate the dark figure.
• Social learning theory: crime is learned by observing and imitating role models we identify with, especially when we see them rewarded (vicarious reinforcement).
• Direct reinforcement and internalisation make the learned behaviour last; the theory is on the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate.
• Eysenck: personality varies on extraversion–introversion, neuroticism and psychoticism; the "criminal personality" scores high on all three.
• Personality is largely inherited through the nervous system; under-arousal and poor conditioning lead to weak socialisation. The RAS, dopamine and the limbic system give each trait its biological basis.
• Offenders often score higher, but many high scorers never offend, so the theory explains only part of criminal behaviour.
• Recidivism is reoffending; prison, community sentences and restorative justice each have strengths and weaknesses.
• Short prison sentences have very high reoffending rates; community sentences and restorative justice are linked to less reoffending for similar offenders.
• Application: punishment has changed from deterrence towards rehabilitation, using restorative justice, positive role models, community sentences and fines.