Dark figure of crime

Crime that is not reported to or recorded by the police and is therefore missing from police-recorded crime statistics.

Crime that does not appear in police records because it is unreported or unrecorded.

The dark figure of crime is crime missing from police records because it is unreported or unrecorded. These are two different routes into the same hidden total.

Crime that is unreported or unrecorded and therefore absent from official crime statistics.

Crime missing from official recorded statistics because it has not been reported or recorded.

Crimes that are not reported or recorded and therefore do not appear in official crime statistics.

Crime that is not reported to or recorded by the police, so is missing from police-recorded crime statistics.

Official statistics reveal important patterns, but the dark figure of crime means that some offending remains unrecorded. Self-report studies, which ask people about their own offending, can reveal behaviour missed by police records. However, respondents may conceal or exaggerate offences.

Crime that has occurred but does not appear in police-recorded crime statistics because it is undetected, unreported or unrecorded.