Counting rules
Definition
Administrative instructions that specify how agencies should convert incidents into statistical records: how to count multiple victims of one incident, how to classify ambiguous offences, and how to handle series crimes. Changes to counting rules are a major cause of apparent trend shifts that do not reflect real changes in crime.
Related terms
- Attrition
- The progressive loss of cases as they move through the criminal justice system: from crime committed, to reported, to recorded, to prosecuted,...
- Notifiable offences
- In England and Wales, the category of offences that must be formally reported to the Home Office and included in national crime...
- Police-recorded crime
- Criminal incidents formally logged by police following a report or officer discovery, counted according to nationally defined rules and submitted to a...
- Reporting rate
- The proportion of crimes experienced by victims that are brought to the attention of police. Reporting rates vary substantially by offence type,...
- Secondary victimisation
- Additional harm caused to a victim through the process of reporting and investigation, such as disbelief, insensitive questioning, or retraumatisation. Fear of...
Explained in
- Official Crime StatisticsAdministrative instructions that specify how agencies should convert incidents into statistical records: how to count multiple victims of one incident, how to...