... the police have risen from 3,706 in 1989 to 5,301 in 1999. This increase of 1,595 crimes in ten years is recorded in the Home Office Criminal Statistics, (1989 p17, 1999 p21.) The difficulty of using these Official Crime Statistics as accurate figures is that they do not show an increase in crime but just an increase in the discovery of crime. For example, one of the problems in a major city may be prostitution. The police will make prostitution one of their targets to crack down on, which will result in discoveries of more prostitutes, but not necessarily an increase in prostitution in the city. Quinney and Wildeman (1977), depict this interpretation of statistics in crime rates in Muncie, J. and McLaughlin, E. (1996, p21) "crime merely reflects what, where and when the law-enforcement agencies decide to target. In this respect, crime rates are not accurate measures, but only ...

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