ABSTRACT
Can we count crime? If so, how is that done? This chapter considers these questions and the sources of information available to criminologists to answer them. The chapter focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of these different sources of information. We shall also consider some of the other main ways in which criminologists attempt to know things about crime in the course of doing their research. The central purpose of this chapter is to encourage and develop the critical thinking that we ended with in Chapter 1. So at different points in this chapter you will be asked to engage in exercises that are intended to facilitate this.
