dark figure

English

Etymology

Calque of German Dunkelziffer.

Noun

dark figure (plural dark figures)

1. (criminology, statistics) The estimated number of unreported criminal cases.
   • 1977, US Congressional House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Suspension of the National Crime Survey, page 15:

     In exploring the dark figure of crime, the primary question is not how much of it becomes revealed but rather what will be the selective properties of any particular innovation for its illumination.

   • 1992, Hisao Katoh, Louise I. Shelley, Hisao Katō, Hans-Günther Heiland, Crime and Control in Comparative Perspectives, Walter de Gruyter, page 49:

     The dark figure concerning these criminal offences, is very high and the attitude towards reporting such cases is not constant.

   • 2000, Piers Beirne, James W. Messerschmidt, Criminology:

     By definition, they ignore the unreported “dark figure” of crime. We turn now to a second source of official crime data.

   • 2012, Joel Best, Damned Lies and Statistics […] , University of California Press, →ISBN, page 37:

     Arguing that the dark figure is larger, perhaps very large (“The cases we know about are just the tip of the iceberg!”), makes any estimate seem possible, even reasonable.

Translations

estimated number of unreported criminal cases

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 犯罪暗數／犯罪暗数 (fànzuì ànshù)

• Danish: mørketal n
• Faroese: myrkatal n, skuggatal n
• German: Dunkelziffer (de) f
• Japanese: 暗数 (ja) (ansū)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mørketall (no) n

• Russian: тёмный показа́тель m (tjómnyj pokazátelʹ)
• Spanish: cifra gris f
• Swedish: mörkertal (sv)