Statistics : Collecting Crime Statistics

The Uniform Crime Report and the National Crime Victimization Survey were both developed to perform differently. The Uniform Crime Report was a program whose primary goals were to provide a reliable set of criminal justice statistics for law enforcement administration, operation, and management. The Uniform Crime Report was developed in 1929. It was developed by the International Associations of Chiefs of Police.

The two major sources of crime data used in the United States remain The Uniform Crime Reports and The National Incident-Based Reporting System. Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) shows a statistical summary of crimes reported by the police each year. UCR was authorized in 1930 by Congress for the operation of compiling crime data. A reporting system in which police describe each offense in a crime incident including the data describing the offender, victim, and property is considered the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). NIBRS is put together by two groups: Group A and Group B. Group A consists of 22 specific crimes in reach of 46 offenses and 11 Group B offense categories exclusive for data reported for arrest.

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.

In 1929 the Uniform Crime was created by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Yet, in the year of 1930, the Federal Bureau of Investigations became in charge of finalizing information collected for the crime reports. The Uniform Crime Report is an official data on crime that occurs throughout the United States. Once all information is reported from different police department, the Federal Bureau of Investigations breaks down all the collected data into charts. The Uniform Crime Report is statistical information gathered from different police agencies throughout the United States.

There are three main sources of information about the crimes for sociologists – the official crime statistics, which are collected by the police and are presented as secondary data for sociologists; victim survey such as British Crime Survey, which is also collected by the police and sponsored by the government, and in order to collect primary data sociologists use self-report studies and its aim is to uncover the true amount of crime in the society.

When it comes to the UCR assisting law enforcement agencies predicting and preventing crime in the future will prove to a plus being that it is said that the UCR is quite reliable for keeping reported crimes of the entire population of the United States.

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

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.

The Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR), was the first of the two programs to be developed. “In, 1930 Congress authorized the U.S. attorney general to survey crime in America” (Schmalleger, 2015). Within its first year, the UCR “received reports from 400 cities in 43 states” (Schmalleger, 2015). Since its inception, the UCR has tracked seven types of crimes. These crimes are “murder, robbery, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, theft and vehicle theft” (Sources of Crime Data: Uniform Crime Reports and the National Incident-Based Reporting System, 2009). There was a revision to the UCR in 1979. This is when this system began to report arson as well (Sources of Crime Data, 2009). In the first year of operation, twenty million people were covered under this survey (Schmalleger, 2015). Today, the UCR compiles data from nearly 18,000 law enforcement agencies (Schmalleger, 2015). This data comes “from city, county, and state

When looking at the Uniform Crime Report,(UCR), we are not given the statistics of the crimes after the criminal is prosecuted or the story of the victims or if the crime was a victimless crime. The downside to this type of reporting system is that the data that the law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are looking for is at a basic or beginner starting point. Because of its basic score it does not allow for law enforcement officers or (LEO) need to have in order to pay attention to crime statistics as crimes occur as well as who, what, and where they occurred this includes social crimes, crimes that are seen or occur on facebook, twitter. Crimes for example people bragging about school shootings, this is usually a crime that is posted on the social

The Uniform Crime Report contains information about different categories of crime committed in the United States of America. The categories of crime include: hate crime statistics, statistics about law enforcement officers who have been killed or assaulted and lastly incidences of crime that have occurred nationally. The main goal of UCR reports is to provide information about the volume and effect of crime in the United States. Crime in the United States is mostly measured in terms of the number of offenses that are performed per 100,000 people in a population. There are four publications that are released yearly reporting crime in the United States.

From a business perspective, and when dealing with the more violent crimes, the Uniform Crime Report would be more accurate. Crimes such as murder or a kidnapped child are crimes that can usually be counted on to be reported. The only down fall is that the UCR only reports crimes that are reported to the police. Crimes that are frequently not reported to the police can include, but are not limited to sexual assualt and household theft. In the business stand point, we can only assume how many rapes actually occur in the United States. Even with this downfall, I feel that the UCR is more accurate than using surveys due to the fact that we are not relying souly on whether or not a victim is being honest or that the survey will be filled out at

By police agencies using this form of statistical classifying, there is a major loss in the data of the lower crimes on the scale. A complete total of certain crimes are not included in the statistics creating several inaccuracies in the totals. The UCR policy does not require all crimes to be reported to the state. Violations of the General City Ordinance and Vehicle and Traffic Law are considered too low for the hierarchy scale. These types of crimes are never included in the monthly submission and we generally never hear about them. Since crime statistics begin at the forefront of the police department, the police officer, this leaves a lot of room for unreliability. Police officers create crime data by completing and submitting crime reports and arrest reports. These reports include all of the pertinent information necessary for the committed crime(s) for a specific incident.

At the beginning of the second chapter, it is described how the statistics of a crime provide a summary of the whole criminal activity. An accurate statistical picture of a crime benefits the creation of a social policy. In a national level, the collection of crime statistics come from two major sources, Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program and National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program produces an annual overview of major crime in the United States. It is also known as the UCR/NIBRS Program. On the other hand, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): U.S. Department of justice agency responsible for the collection of criminal

Crime statistics are expressed as rates, because they are often expressed as crimes per 100,000 people. This makes it easier to compare crime between cities and state with different populations sizes. Expressing crime statistics as rates prevent larger cities from looking like they maintain the most crime compared to smaller ones. Crime rates give information on how crime is either increasing or decreasing in a specific area. By expressing crime statistics as rates it take in all factors, race, age, sex, etc. This allows for a complete break down in crimes committed and by which different groups of people. Another point to use statistics is that it makes the report less personal to the reader. A reader will see numbers and think math instead