ACAT Criminal Justice Practice Test

In criminology, unofficial data come from sources outside the formal criminal justice process and can capture crime experiences that official records miss. Victimization surveys and self-reporting studies fit this category because they gather information directly from people about crimes they experienced or committed, regardless of whether those incidents were reported to police or processed by courts. This kind of data helps reveal the full scope of crime, including the “dark figure” that never appears in official statistics.

Official sources, by contrast, come from the criminal justice system itself—police statistics, court records, and arrest records. These records reflect what is reported, investigated, charged, or processed within the system, and they often undercount the total amount of crime because not all incidents come to the attention of authorities.