Pros And Cons Of Uniform Crime Reports

The Uniform Crime Report or the UCR is the official crime data collected by the FBI from the local police. It is not always a hundred percent correct. It uses the Part 1 and Part 2 crimes way to help solve the crimes. Though one of its weaknesses is that some crimes go unreported. Another weakness is that police records are not perfect and only the serious crime is reported. So, some of the crimes in the Part 1 which involves murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, arson, and motor vehicle theft. Whereas Part 2 crimes involves all the other crimes reported to the FBI; which are less serious crimes and misdemeanors, excluding traffic violations. Some of its strengths is that it helps the FBI tally and annually publish the numbers of reported offenses by city, county all other United states. And that is easy to contact them when in needed of turning in a crime.

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.

The UCR, also known as the Uniform Crime Reports, is a report put out by the FBI that shows a series of data on crime. It is summary based and a group level of analysis. The FBI gets the information for the UCR through agencies/jurisdictions volunteering the information to them. Some of the positives about the UCR is that it can compare certain agencies and areas in which more crimes were committed. The UCR also is quick, efficient, and easy to acquire the information. One of the drawbacks for the UCR is that it does not encompass all the crimes reported to the police. Since providing the reports is voluntary, jurisdictions vary in the completeness of the data they sent. There can also be clerical or filing problems. Only the most serious crime

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

The Uniform Crime Reports can also be described as a summary reporting system (Criminal Justice Information Services Division, 2000. pg. 5). The National Incident-Based Reporting System is much more detailed in nature. When it comes to the offense recording, the hierarchy rule is used only in the UCR which only records one offense no matter if there were several crimes that occurred. However, the NIBRS records each crime even if they are part of one incident, therefore the hierarchy is not applied (Criminal Justice Information Services Division, 2000, pg. 13). UCR does not distinguish between completed and attempted crimes whereas the NIBRS does. When it comes to rapes, the UCR only classifies rapes against women where the NIBRS classifies rapes against men also (Rantala & Edwards, 2000, pg. 1). In collecting information on weapons, the UCR only collects it for murder, robbery, and aggravated assaults. The NIBRS collects weapon information on all crimes. Even though, both the UCR and NIBRS collects information on the 8 index crimes, the UCR only has another 21 offenses in contrast with NIBRS’s 49 offenses to collect information on. Under the hotel rule, the UCR only reports a theft at the hotel, whereas the NICRS also includes the detailed rooms at the hotel and also classifies storage facilities as part of this rule as well (Rantala & Edwards, 2000, pg. 5).

However, measurements of crime using the Uniform Crime Report are not completely accurate either. Local police officers often do not report crimes that they think are not substantial enough. Only the more serious crimes (Part I crimes) are the ones that they feel deserve the time and effort doing paper work for to be reported in the Uniform Crime Report. This means that a lot of Part II cases go unreported by police and, once again, the white-collar crimes are over looked meaning the Uniform Crime Report is not accurate (Barkan, 2012).

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

Another advantage is that crime analyses can be made at the local and regional levels and meet the needs of local, state and national reporting. These crimes are clearly distinguishable between which ones are attempted and which ones are completed. Regionally, law enforcement agencies can share the data collected easily across jurisdictions. Law enforcement agencies are required to submit at least a brief account of each criminal offense and the resulting arrests. For each offense or incident known to the local law enforcement authorities, information within the categories is gathered.

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.

I am going to begin by discussing the violent crime. There are 4 main classes of violent crime. These classes consist of: Murder and Negligient Homicide, Forcible Rape, Robbery and Aggravated Assault. These crimes are usually defined as offenses that include force or the threat of force. The violent crimes are listed under the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. There are other crimes which classify as violent crimes, these include: Burglary, Larceny-theft and Motor Vehicle theft. The FBI uses a system to classify crimes from the worst crime, Murder and Negligient Homicide, being at the top of the list, and the least serious crime, Motor Vehicle theft, being at the bottom of the list. One crime which is listed on both violent crimes and property crimes is Arson, depending on the circumstances surrounding the offense at the time.

All that is required is for someone to believe that a crime actually took place.

Uniform Crime reports, National Incident Based Reporting System and the National Crime Reporting Survey are all major crime reporting systems here in the U.S. Each crime reporting system has its own advantage and disadvantage towards the criminals and victims as well as the law enforcement involved. Each has a unique history on how it started and when, how it became as popular of a system as it is now and will it keep growing or will it one day start to fade into the background while other reporting systems take its place.