The Uniform Crime Report And The National Incident Based Reporting System

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

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 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).

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

Uniform Crime Report is a route for police of distinctive locales to look at wrongdoing inside of their group. It began in 1931 by the FBI. The way that it has been around for so long despite everything it being utilized as top efficient date authority in law implementation demonstrates its significance. Not all casualties report the criminal acts so it may not be as precise but rather it is solid. The National Opinion Research Center was the first national casualty overview. Questioners contemplated family units in a twelve-month period to see what occurrences they have experienced. It was made in 1967 by Ennis. The UCR delineated like fifty percent of what the family units were included in. exploitation overviews are exceptionally useful to the law implementation organization. I don't comprehend what other approach to track wrongdoing in the point of view of a casualty. The issue is that a great many people who are casualties won't report the wrongdoing in which they were exploited.

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.

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.

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).

The UCR program provides information to the law enforcement, Chamber of Commerce, Criminal Justice Researchers, Legislatures, and the news media. It is used for budget formulation, resource allocation, addressing the crime problem at various levels, and the impact of particular geographic jurisdiction. It helps with studying the nature, cause, and movement of crime over a period of time. Even the news media helps by letting the public know about the state of the crimes (FBI.gov 2011).

Everyday in the United States major crimes are committed which cause risk and much destruction to the many neighborhoods and communities of America. For many years it has been a job for investigators to figure out why these crimes are being committed and where they are most likely to occur. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) are just two of the many methods used by the government in order to keep track of criminal activities and to collect data.

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

Law enforcement agency starting in 1920’s realized the need to standardized criminal reporting. Every agency from privet to locale, county, and state had different criminal codes and various ways of track the frequency and categorizing crime. The end resulted was the creation of Uniform Crime Report (UCR), National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

Crime Reporting system is the primary wellspring of wrongdoing measurements for all known criminal offenses carried out in the United States every year. The UCR program gathers information from nearby criminal equity offices and discharges a yearly report and information tables areabridging national, state and neighborhood wrongdoing insights. The U.S. Registration Bureau says federal, state and nearby demographic data and gives individual wrongdoing reports seeing themes, for example, stalking, provocation and scorn violations separated by sex, race, and area (United States Demographics -

National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) was originally designed as a summary system to collect only the most serious offense within an incident; the FBI UCR Program began using the NIBRS in 1989 to capture up to ten crime occurrences within an incident (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/nibrs-user-manual, 6). Through the NIBRS, LEAs report data on each offense and arrest within 23 offense categories made up of 49 specific crimes called Group A offenses the law enforcement collects administrative, offense, property, victim, offender, and arrestee information and an additional 10 Group B offense categories (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/nibrs-user-manual, 6). By design, LEAs generate NIBRS data as a by-product of their respective records management systems (RMS) (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/nibrs-user-manual, 6). Therefore, an LEA builds its system to suit its own individual needs, including all of the information required for administration and operation; then forwards only the data required by the NIBRS to participate in the FBI UCR Program (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/nibrs-user-manual, 6). As more agencies report via the NIBRS, the data collected will provide a clearer assessment of the nation’s crime experience (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/nibrs-user-manual, 6).