Police recorded statistics measure acts that are deemed to be criminal and are not reliant upon the victim’s interpretation of whether it was a crime.

Police recorded statistics are compiled by official government agencies each year and can be compared with previous years.

Police recorded statistics can help to decide policing budgets by predicting the level of crime that the police will have to deal with in the coming year.

Weaknesses:

Police recorded statistics are subject to the changing priorities of government agencies and some crimes may not be considered worthy of investigation.

Police recorded statistics may be manipulated to show falling levels of crime to meet government targets.

Not all crimes are reported to the police, nor are all crimes reported to the police recorded as offences.