Disadvantages And Strengths Of Self-Report In Crime

Self-report data plays an important role in revealing some of the dark figures of offending while allowing law enforcement officials to construct a database of offender typologies. Unlike official data collected from crime or arrest reports, self-report surveys extract information directly from the source (the offenders), therefore, revealing details which are typically not solicited during an investigation or an arrest. Moreover, self-reporting has its advantages such as simplicity, cost effectiveness, less sophisticated methodology, and can gather social, situational and behavioral factors, revealing methodologies and patterns of criminal behaviors. In contrast, self-report data also has weaknesses; the measures of crime and its correlates …show more content…
Accordingly, it should be noted that self-report in this context has to do with surveys that elicit information from offenders based on thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that lead to delinquency or the commission of a crime. Therefore, it is important to recognize and distinguish the difference between self-report survey versus self-report data; a survey is quite different from victimization data, which are gathered from crime victims. These types of self-report data (victimization) are actually crime reports that are considered unknown to the police (also referred to as the dark figure). In contrast, a self-report survey elicits information from offenders to better understand their behaviors, thoughts, and feelings; therefore, revealing some of the dark figures of offending (reasons why, when, and how). Moreover, surveys elicit private and detailed information as to the offender’s involvement, subjective attitudes and expectations, and probability of judgments. For instance, a RAND Second Inmate Survey revealed that active burglars reported committing burglaries just over five times per year; whereas, 10% of them reported an astounding 232 times per year (Mosher et al., 2011). This information helps to distinguish an offender that commits a random act versus a career criminal; according to Mosher et al., (2011) and Peterson, Chaiken, Ebenerm, and Honig (1982), the survey provides a database for law enforcement and researchers to place offenders into a classification according to the types of crimes they commit. Interestingly, Loughran, Paternoster, and Thomas (2014), postulated that private information is easily accessible for individuals and requires no mental effort or cognitive reflection; hence, the answers to the survey questions are within the capability of the offenders. Coincidently, law enforcement