DÉLINQUANCE : CE QUE LES CHIFFRES NE DISENT PAS (Par Adjudant-chef (e.r.) Alioune Kassé)
Every year, the Police and Gendarmerie publish their statistics on delinquency and criminality. These eagerly awaited reports fuel public debate and guide security policies. But behind the columns of figures and official graphs lies a far more complex reality: that of the crimes actually committed, those that are recorded, and those that never will be.
In other words: the real number , the apparent number , and the hidden number — also called the dark number .
When these statistics are released, reactions are rife: an increase here, a decrease there, satisfaction or concern depending on the case. Yet these data only tell part of the story: visible, invisible, and sometimes unspeakable crime. This is the whole meaning of these three faces of delinquency that official figures still struggle to reveal.
The apparent figure
This is the visible part of the iceberg: the offenses recorded by the police (complaints, reports, findings). A reported theft, a reported assault, a recorded burglary: all acts that feed into the official reports and end-of-year graphs.
The hidden number
But beneath the surface, another world exists: the unspoken. Domestic violence is kept quiet, scams deemed "too small to cause concern," assaults swept under the carpet out of fear or shame. All of this makes up the hidden figure , the shadowy side that statistics ignore. Where the numbers end, a world of anxiety and resignation begins, where many victims prefer to remain silent.
The real figure
Adding together the visible and the invisible is a way of getting closer to the real figure : the actual crime committed. Impossible to measure with precision, it can be guessed through victimization surveys , where researchers directly question the population about the acts suffered (whether they have been declared or not).
"Statistics don't lie, but they don't tell the whole story. Between what is recorded and what is experienced, there is a gap that only trust between citizens and institutions can bridge.
Read the numbers with caution
Crime statistics always contain biases:
Thus, actual crime refers to all crimes committed, while apparent crime refers to those known to the authorities. Between the two, there is the dark figure (this submerged part of crime that the tables will never translate).
Chief Warrant Officer (er) Alioune Kassé, formerly of the Communications Division, National Gendarmerie.
Commentaires (4)
Article très intéressant. Merci mon adjudant-chef
Tres intéressant!!!
Toutes plaintes que la police ne veut pas prendre car il ́ne savent même pas écrire et qu ils vous disent d aller voir l écrivain public tssss
Que des salades
Toutes infractions commise a moto ou voiture devant les policier qui les laissent faire
Rouler sans casque sans plaque sans assurance sans permis c est pas un délit ????
La les statistiques explosent
tres bonne reflexion et instructive
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