... it serve only to alter the true picture. If the latter is true, this has severe implications for the use of such information when demonstrating current crime trends (Louw, 2001). The most important feature of police crime statistics is that they tell us about crimes that the public report and the police record. As a result, crime statistics often say more about reporting patterns and police procedure than about actual crime levels (Maguire, Morgan, & Reiner, 1994). Nevertheless, police statistics provide useful information on the following: By analysing the number of crimes recorded by the police in a given time period and in a particular geographic area, changes in crime levels over time can be tracked. The significance of the trends will depend on how much data is available: the higher the numbers being analysed and the longer the time period, the more accurate the trends are likely to be (Louw, 2001). Police ...

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