Measuring Crime Paper

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

Measuring crime is based on three main measurements; criminal justice system data, crime experience surveys and other sources called administrative data (Hayes & Makkai, 2015). Firstly, crime first needs to be categorised into types of crime that is classified under the Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (Hayes & Makkai, 2015). Only the main and select few offences are reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in collecting annual reported crimes (Hayes & Makkai, 2015). Through ABS, it collects crime data in different ways such as crime reports, victimisations surveys, administrative data (higher courts, magistrates and policing agendas etc.,) and self-reports (Hayes & Makkai, 2015). Crime reports measure crimes such as homicide, robbery, rape, assault and more but is collected through police jurisdictions (Reid, 2012). The strength of crime reports provides additional information such as arrests, charges, officers assaults and characteristics of homicide victims (Reid, 2012). This helps to measure crime more effectively through gaining descriptions and knowledge of identifying crime and criminal behaviour more accurately (Reid, 2012). Administrative data is often helpful in collating data of sentences and jail sentences but fails to collect the ‘dark figure’ of crime (Hayes & Makkai, 2015). National Crime Victimisation Surveys (NCVS)

Incarceration rates have increased from 400,000 people in 1975 to 2.1 million in 2003; a fivefold increase, making the United States a leader in rates compared to other nations (Morenoff & Harding, 2014). These numbers bear a great burden on individuals, families, and communities in various ways. First, with 700,000 individuals being released from prison annually comes difficulty in reentering society both socially and economically; difficulty finding work, education, strained relationships, and social stigma (Morenoff & Harding, 2014). Second, the increasing rates of incarceration are disproportionately and unfairly impacting minorities, specifically African-Americans, and poor urban communities (Morenoff & Harding, 2014). A New York Times article by Furman and Holtz-Eakin (2016) states that $80 billion dollars--$600 per household--is spent on corrections annually, or a 1,700 percent increase in the federal prison budget in just thirty years. These increases have a deep historical background, many complex and interweaving factors, and require urgent reform.

The three methods by which crime is measured are the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), and self-reporting. While all prove to be a great way to measure crime, there are some limitations to each. For UCR, its limitations are probability, the possibility of someone witnessing the crime, or it being reported. This limitation proves that some crimes may be more underreported than others. For NCVS, it does not report some juvenile victimization. For example, anyone 12 or under will not be part of this survey. It does not gather information on certain important kinds of juvenile victimizations, such as the nonforcible sex offenses of statutory rape and incest. For Self-Report, its limitations

Q1.The racial/ethnic differences in offending, victimization, and incarceration? Minorities, particularly African Americans, are generally overrepresented in the criminal justice system both as offenders and as victims.  According to the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) for 2003, African Americans (who were 12.7 percent of the population in 2003) were arrested for 37 percent of violent crimes (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault) and 29 percent of property crime (102:288). African Americans are disproportionately arrested for violent crimes and whites for burglaries and property crimes. Although most crime is committed by males, black women are also disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system. The rate of black women under control of the criminal justice system is growing faster than for any other group, including black men and white men (86:136). Blacks are victims of serious violent crimes at far higher rates than whites. In 2002, blacks were 6 times more likely to be murdered than whites; and although homicide levels have declined for all groups over the past decade, during the 1976 to 2002 period, rates were disproportionately high for African Americans at 47 percent of victims (28

The United States of America has the largest prison population in the world. The United States incarcerates six hundred ninety-three people per one hundred thousand people and boasts an incarceration rate that is almost five times higher than most other countries (Wagner & Walsh, 2016). The incarceration rate within the U.S. is significantly higher than the incarceration rates of other countries due to the prevalence of institutional racism within the American criminal justice system. While the criminal justice system unjustly targets minority individuals, African Americans and Hispanics are especially targeted (Brennan & Spohn, 2009). African Americans and Hispanics account for a minority of the U.S. population but make up the majority of the U.S. prison population. Despite comprising only 13.6% of the U.S. population (Rastogi, Johnson, Hoeffel, and Drewery, 2011), African Americans account for 37.8% of all prisoners in the U.S. (Inmate Race, 2017). Hispanics are also targeted by the criminal justice system at abnormally high rates. Hispanics make up

More than half of the United States prison population is made up of African Americans and Latinos, this is nearly twice as their accumulated representation within thirty percent of the general population. As these minorities continue to be put in jail, the rates of racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system also continue to stagger. Crime commission, arrests, convictions, and sentencing are all apart of the many stages within

While studying Criminology I have gained insight on different techniques used to determine which individuals commit the most crimes. There are three basic methods to measure criminal behavior. These include: Uniform Reporting of Crime, Self- Report and National Crime Victimization Survey. Uniform Reporting of Crime (URC) is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of more than 18,000 voluntarily individuals reporting data on crimes (“Federal Bureau of Investigation”1). Self-report surveys measure crime by distributing questionnaires to a sample of people, asking if they have committed any crimes during a period of time. National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is a national source that samples about 90,000 households in order to uncover unreported crime and describes the relationship between the victims and the offender (“Bureau of Justice Statistics” 1).

When reading Robert d. Crutchfield’s, From Slavery to Social Class to Disadvantages, Crutchfield presented his perspective and central points about racial differences and criminal involvement. The first point that Crutchfield presents is that when it comes to race and crime the law enforcement’s thoughts on people of color and Hispanics are disingenuous and misleading. Crutchfield theorizes that, “It is likely that mass incarceration in criminogenic and increases black, brown and differences in criminal behavior. The agencies of the criminal justice system, charged with protecting society from crime, are now a major source of racial differences in criminal involvement” (Crutchfield 36). Statistics

Though there are factors that have contributed to the higher incarceration rates of minorities throughout time, race its self, appears to be the primary factor in higher incarceration rates among minorities. Campbell et al., (2015) make an interesting observation, and point out that, “A considerable body of research has suggested that higher incarceration rates are linked to changes in race relations and that aggressive state action against crime serves as a proxy for racial conflict.” The change in race relations that stems from the civil rights era and prior appears to not only have a direct impact incarceration rates, but also the laws and policies that have been established to favor whites. Greenberg and West’s (2001) “findings highlighted

Crime is something that occurs throughout the world. To some people it is an incident that adds stress to one’s life, and to others, they see it as a way of life. Over the last years, different areas of the United States have been affected by crime. The Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report (UCR) Program is a nationwide program that gathers statistical information from nearly 18,000 agencies that report criminal data on crimes that have been brought to their attention or reported voluntarily (The Federal

The Mass Incarceration in the United States is a major topic of discussion in our society and has raised many questions about our criminal justice system. There are few topics disputed as much in criminal justice as the relationship between race, ethnicity, and criminal outcomes. Specifically, the large disparities that minorities face regarding incarceration in our country. Minorities such as Hispanics and African Americans are sentenced at far higher rates than their white counterparts. There are multiple factors that influence this such as the judicial system, racial profiling by law enforcement, and historical biases (Kamula, Clark-Coulson, Kamula, 2010). Additionally, the defendants race was found to be highly associated with either a jail or prison sentence; with the “odds increasing 29 percent for black defendants, and 44 percent for Hispanic defendants” (King, Johnson, McGeever, 2010).

Crime is an ongoing problem in the united states. Victims of crime are individuals who have been assaulted in an immoral matter that can cause various damages to the person. The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is the FBI’s yearly publication of serious crime that occurred within the following year, which are reported by victims, police officers, and other sources. The UCR is not fully seen as an accurate source of crime calculation for various reasons. One main reason is the underreporting of crime done by both the officers and victims.

"Mass incarceration makes our country worse off and we need to do something about it."(LoBianco 2015).There have been criminals since the beginning of time, the crime rate seems to increase with every year. Criminals do not have a certain agenda or a race/ethnicity. Although in today’s times, African Americans and Latino Americans have been the target of the cruel and unjust criminal justice system. The criminal justice system at times does not stand to be right within many of minorities’ communities when they are being attacked often and not treated fairly. The history of criminal injustice reaches as far back as slavery when slaves were beaten to death just for looking at a Caucasian woman. Although progress has been made, America still has a long way to go. The situation of killings or beatings of minority individual’s death and aggressors not facing any consequences has to change. The United States is stagnant in many cases in the criminal justice system. In cases Blacks and Latinos have to deal with harsh tribulations and endure hardships because of the criminal justice system. The harsh realities of the criminal justice system toward minorities are based on racial stereotyping and result in unfounded criminal charges, police brutality, and never getting the justice that is deserved. According to Michigan law program in law series, they conducted a study in which sample is limited to males because racial disparity patterns differ by gender, and those affecting black males are of particular policy importance. Black men in the U.S. are incarcerated at a rate over six times that of White men and over ten times that of Black women, and men make up over 80% of federal defendant in the sample period. Using both regression methods and a semi-parametric reweighting approach, we find that black defendants face significantly more severe charges than whites even after controlling for criminal behavior (arrest offense, multiple-defendant case

It may seem that incarceration rates are high for minorities at the federal level, but the rates are even higher at the state levels. African Americans are 5.6 times, and Hispanics are 1.8 times more likely to be incarcerated than whites. Young African American and Hispanic males are leading incarceration rates for robbery, drug offenses, followed by murder and nonnegligent manslaughter. Whites show a significant lower number than of the Hispanics and blacks for the violent crimes, but lead incarceration rates for rape and sexual abuse. Whites also exceeded minorities in property crime (108,560), compared to blacks (78,197) and Hispanics (38,264) (E. Ann Carson and Daniela Golinelli, 2013). The demographics show that young minority males are being incarcerated at higher rates for majority of the main crimes