Production of Crime Rates

Abstract

This paper makes problematic the situational conditions under which policemen write official crime reports in field encounters with complainants. These reports are the raw materials for official crime rates-crimes known to the police. They also are a prerequisite of further investigation of the crime by the detective bureau and thus of apprehension of the offender. They constitute official recognition of crimes. The findings derive from a three-city observation study of routine police encounters. Among the conditions that relate to the production of official crime reports are the following: the legal seriousness of the complaint, the complainant's observable preference for police action, the relational distance between the complainant and the suspect, the complainant's degree of deference toward the police, and the complainant's social-class status. However, there is no evidence of racial discrimination in crime-reporting. We interpret these empirical patterns not only from the standpoint of crime rates as such but also from the standpoint of the relation between police work and other aspects of social organization.