Criminology : The Scientific Approach For Studying Criminal Behavior

One of the first problems that this system has to do with the “procedures that captures it,” and this leads to why we must be cautious about this methods. The procedure involves the crime to be initially reported to the police. This beginning procedure already has a problem, and according to James, the problem is, “the NIBRS collect data on the number of offenses known to law enforcement each year. However, not all crimes that occur are known to the police” (2). The procedure that is used in NIBRS to get the number of crimes begins initially with the crime being reported to

Crime measurement and statistics for police departments are very important when it comes to money allotment, staffing needs or termination and it is also used to determine the effectiveness of new laws and programs. There are three tools used to measure major crime in the United States: Uniform Crime Reports, National Crime Victimization Survey and the National Incident Based Reporting System- which is currently being tested to replace the Uniform Crime Reports. Although there different tools used to measure crime, crime rates can be deceiving. Each different tool reports a different type of rate, crime rates, arrest

Official statistics include the UCR, Uniform Crime Report, and NIBRS, National Incident-Based Reporting System. UCR is a summary based reporting system that collects data on the eight index crimes, murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, auto theft, and arson. The UCR is published annually by the FBI, but the data is collected by law enforcement agencies all around the United States. UCR looks at trends of crime and gives statistics of crime in certain areas. Three weaknesses of the UCR is it only reports the highest crime committed, so if someone commits burglary and murders someone in the process the UCR will only report the murder, it only reports crimes known to the police, and not all crimes are reported to enhance the view of cities and areas. Although the UCR has weaknesses, it also has its strengths. Three strengths of UCR are that it has multiple years of data available, almost all law enforcement agencies use this to report crimes, and helps law

UCR or known as the Uniform crime reports is an annual report published by the FBI in the DOJ, which is meant to estimate most of the major street crimes in the United States.The main purpose of the UCR is basically to collect as many crimes or reliable crimes that come up as crime statistics so it can be used in our law enforcement administration. The Ucr is a very helpful tool for the law. The system was created in 1929. It provided information for criminologists,sociologists, and even the media. The Ucr mostly concentrates on assaults and robberies. The NIBRS or the national incident based reporting system is the system that the government uses for gathering data about recent or past crimes. The system has a lot of purposes but one of the main purposes’ is to evaluate the crimes associated with any current culture of violence theories.

Challenging determining the accuracy of the data since the information reported on known crimes is what is known by the police.

By constructing theories or representations we can increase our understanding of criminal conduct. Through improving our understanding we can create effective, and operational strategies to handle crime issues. We must have a sufficient amount of accurate and documented research, and or experiments to prove the validity of our research. Research is attaining the information and data needed to generate a theory. We gather research by creating specific controlled experiments to reach a conclusion that will satisfy, or otherwise attest our theories.

As human beings we all see and hear about crimes from a day to day basis. We all question why we have crime and what makes a person commit a crime.

The Uniform Crime Report, which was developed in the 1930s, is commonly used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a record of crimes committed all across the United States. These crimes, which fall under two categories, Part I and Part II offenses, are reported by local police to the Federal Bureau of Investigation each year. Part I offenses are considered to be the more serious of crimes recognized by society. Such examples of this are homicide, forcible rape, robbery, arson, motor vehicle theft, etc. Part II offenses are those that are considered less serious, such as fraud, simple assault, drug abuse, gambling, stolen property, embezzlement, etc. Part I crimes can also be subdivided into what are known as violent crimes and

The annual National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) has been the primary method for gathering data and providing these staggering statistics. The NCVS provides information gathered from the victim, which includes information on crimes that went unreported to the police. The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is also a valid reference for gathering crime information within the United States. The UCR only has information regarding crimes that were reported to the police, as well as arrests. Both forums are used by the FBI. In addition, researchers use this information for their research. Even Taylor and

The Uniform Crime Report and the National Crime Victimization survey are similar in creating data for crime and aim to be accurate as possible and they both are valuable in helping with crime statics. The UCR reports crime and the NCVS aim to look for unreported crimes. However, the purpose of the UCR (Uniform Crime Report) reports to law enforcement agencies accordingly to our textbook (Understanding violence and Victimization, Meadows, Robert-6th ed. P. 3). It helps to enable law enforcement to exchange information about different crimes on a nationwide system, but there is certain information that would not be available because crimes are only reported to

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is one of the two ways crime rates are measured in the United States. The "Uniform Crime Reports" (n.d.) website, UCR is the starting place for law enforcement executives, criminal justice students, members of the media, researchers, and the public seeking information on crime in the nation. The idea of the program was conceived in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to meet the need for reliable

After reading the information found on the FBI website about the National Incident Based Reporting System, I found that UCR, NIBRS, and NCVS all have their own strengths and differences but were similar in some ways. When it comes to the uniform crime report ( UCR ), people are able to compare crime rates between different places of their choosing which is strength. Within a year, the data gathered would be ready for the public which is a benefit for us. Every strength has a weakness however, and UCR’s is that it only covers crimes discovered by the police and it can be sometimes lacking in details.

1). Criminology arose from the social scientific community over the year and has since come into its own discipline, it examines the entire process of lawmaking, law breaking, and law enforcing” (as cited in Akers, & Sellers, 2013). Criminology seeks to discover the depth of crime at both the micro and macro levels, from the individual’s natural biological and psychological characteristics, the nurturing of social and structural institutions, to policy, prevention and control.

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has the same base idea as the UCR, the biggest difference is that the NIBRS is more updated and accurate, as well as it provides a lot more detail in its reporting than the UCR. For example the number of offenses made by one person are not limited when reporting and collecting data. Detail on each and every crime is reported, as well as the report making note of the difference of attempting and completing crimes. Not only can citizens still locate and identify crimes made in a certain neighborhood or area but they can also get accurate specific detail on the criminal events. One of the only disadvantages of NIBRS is that the statistics in the reports will not be completely current because there are some criminal events that will not get submitted until the next month, so some of the accurate information is a month delayed. (U.S. Department of Justice)

Criminology is the scientific study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon. Criminological research areas include the incidence of crime as well as its causes and consequences. They also include social and governmental regulations and reactions to crime. Nation master.com (2013) highlights that “in criminology the positivist school has attempted to find scientific objectivity for the measurement and quantification of criminal behaviour”. The Positivist School of thought presumes that criminal behaviour is caused by various internal and external factors which are outside of the individual 's control. The scientific method was introduced and applied to the study of human behaviour. Positivism can be broken up into three segments which include biological, psychological and social positivism Nation master (2013)