Which are you more likely to believe...?

Question

The reported crime / sentencing figures.

Or the unreported figures, such as the British Crime Survey?

I ask this because I notice that many doubt the accuracy of unreported rapes, yet use the same survey to point to the hidden numbers of males suffering domestic abuse.

So, which are you more likely to believe, and why? :-)

Answer 1

I'm more likely to believe the reported crime/ sentencing figures because some one is actually writing them down and keeping record, i don't believe the unreported figures because its a person's subjective view of "a crime happened to me" being filtered by a person's subjective interpretation of someones views to determine " a crime happened to you" it adds layers of misunderstanding to the numbers

Answer 2

Of COURSE people will site which ever statistics support their POV. Simple as that.

Answer 3

The reported crime / sentencing figures.

cause there real figures where the survey is just a survey

Answer 4

I am very skeptical of any figures to do with rape because of the organized crying of rape we have had to listen to for some time now.

Female victim hood is over sold and male domestic victim hood is undersold.

Feminism needs to stop crying rape in order to be taken seriously. Everyone, including women, raises an eyebrow when the r word is mentioned.

Overselling rape is wrong and underselling male victim hood is wrong. The correct position to take is to play down rape and highlight domestic violence against men.

Answer 5

Oh, you know they'll figure out a way to insist that figures of DV against men are unreported but high, but unreported figures about rape are non-existent.

We're not dealing with rational beings, here.

Answer 6

The reported figures, while accurate, will leave out unreported cases (DV against men is an example).

Surveys are surveys, and you can never get the real numbers.

While I believe reported figures, I only consider them accurate for reported cases and not general cases. After all, feminists said 90% of domestic abuse cases had a female victim, conveniently leaving out the word 'reported'. It makes it hard to believe any other femstats after 1 in 4 and 90% DV, as feminists have a record of twisting stats and interpretations simply for propaganda.

Surveys, while supposedly trustworthy, can be twisted easily, as most people will know. Most surveys give results people want to hear, not the real ones. Also, surveys are more subjective, and any person claiming to have been raped/abused is included in the survey without any verification of what they consider rape/abuse, or whether they're telling the truth.

Answer 7

There is no way for one to get real accurate numbers in either occasion in my opinion. The reported crimes are just that "reported" leaving out the masses left in the margins. So many people keep things hidden for their own reasons and wish for no one to know, leaving the reported figures far lower then they really ought to be.

When it comes to unreported figures that have obtained results through surveys I also feel these figures are very inaccurate as well. Because while many do answer surveys truthfully, a large number of others don't, leaving significant room for errors in the final results.

But if I were to choose between the two I would probably say that perhaps surveys hold more information then the crime reports do.