... fears of consequences of reporting. They also have a tendency to over-represent working class crimes and under-represent corporate and government crimes including those committed by themselves, the police. Secondly, there is Victimisation Surveys- namely the British Crime Survey (BCS); these identify the victim of the crime as opposed to the offenders. It has been contested that they have a greater validity and reliability as they show mush criminal behaviour that goes unreported and therefore unrecorded. Lastly, there are Self-Report Studies, which ask directly about an individuals involvement in rule breaking and crime. With these studies, in particular, it is important to work out what the objectives of them are in order to find out their validity, reliability and meaning. Nevertheless, there is a shadow that is cast over all types of crime statistics which is crucial to their meaning and this is the 'dark figure'- unrecorded crime and undetected offenders. ...

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