URC The Uniform Crime Index

Canada has two prominent statistics used to measure crime. Firstly, there is the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR), which is made of crimes recorded by the police. As Jason Ditton (1979), a Constructionist, once pointed out that crime reports “have little to do with the amount of crime” but rather it is simply just a constructed report by the police. On the other hand, we have the General Social Survey (GSS), a victimization survey, which is conducted over a six to twelve month period (Statistics Canada, 2016). The goal of this survey is to “shed light on which people failed to contact the police and why” by asking them questions regarding their living conditions, experiences of victimization and their thought on safety (Morden and Palys, 2015, pg 80). This paper will talk about how both statistics are measured, how they are different, how they are able to complement each other and lastly how accurate they are.

The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is consisted of two parts, part one and part two. Part one crimes are the eight most serious offenses, which is murder, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, arson, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Part two crimes are all other crimes except the ones in part one. They also include drug offenses, sex crimes, and vandalism. The UCR is a large database that stores all the information of the crimes that are reported and arrests made each year in the USA. The method used to get the information to the FBI is complex. Each month a law enforcement agencies report the count of part one crimes. The advantage of UCR is that people can see what kinds of crimes happen in a specific area. The disadvantage of UCR is that many of the serious crimes are not reported because the victims think that the crime is unimportant, they don’t trust the police, or involved in something illegal during the time of the crime.

The hierarchy rule affects international crime rate comparisons too not just only in the United States; due to the matter other countries include each crime in a multiple-offenses incident in their statistics (Siegel, Larry J., 2006, p 38). The UCR does not collect all relevant data; it only collects crime details about the victim, the offender, and the circumstance only for homicide cases which is one of the programs strengths that is consistent (Siegel, Larry J., 2006, p 38). While on the other hand UCR omits crime not reported to police, most drug usage, and contains reporting errors due to lack of knowledge or details from the law enforcement agencies (Siegel, Larry J., 2006, p 38). From that perspective with UCR the NIBRS was develop to capture the missing pieces to the puzzle that was not address in the UCR.

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 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.

To increase the validity, the alternative measure of Victim surveys (VS), are used to eliminate the dark figures of OCS. This is used to provide a fuller picture of crimes. VS data is collected quantitatively so it is easily recorded, and be easily put into a graph to find trends and patterns. As not all crimes are reported or recorded, it is difficult to get an accurate figure. Some crimes may not be reported as the victim feels the police may not be able to do anything about the crime committed, or possible fear of reprisals. As VS give the opportunity to ask people if they have been the victim of crime within the past 12 months. This gives a gateway for unreported crimes to be recorded and included within the OCS. Problems may arise with the use of

It is unfortunate that crime exists in our daily lives. There really is no way to stopping crime completely, no matter how many laws or punishment are present, people will continue to keep breaking rules. There are many theories of why that may be the case, for example, Caesar Lombroso and his “atavistic” theory with the Positivist School theory and how people were “born criminals”, or the Rational Choice Theory, devised by Cornish and Clarke, described that people could think rationally and how people will naturally avoid pain and seek pleasure referred to as “hedonism” (Cartwright, 2017, lecture 4). Since it is apparent that crime will continue to exist, it is not only important to understand the study of crime and the feedbacks to it,

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.

1. The Uniform Crime Rate, or UCR, is put out yearly by the FBI with information gathered from agencies throughout the nation. The reports utilized in the compilation of the UCR generally deal with felony and violent crimes, including crimes such as murder, rape, and arson. Furthermore, according to the U.S. Department of Justice website detailing info about the UCR, “Law enforcement agencies report arrest data for 21… crime categories”. After undergoing an examination process to highlight and explain any errors or discrepancies, the report is put out in the year following the data gathering and it is always followed by an additional report: Crime in the United States. This follow-up report deals not only with the statistics of the crimes reported, but also “includes data on crimes cleared, persons arrested…, law enforcement personnel, and the characteristics of homicides” (U.S. Department of Justice). The UCR deals only with crimes reported to law enforcement and does not take into account any other crimes.

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

In 1927, the Committee on Uniform Crime Records was formed under the direction of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to create a system for gathering uniform police statistics. The committee first determined how to measure the criminality within the United States. After this was determined, members assessed several crimes and identified seven crimes that would be reportable to the Uniform Crime Reports Program. The Uniform Crime Report is now a nationwide assessment of reported crimes from various law enforcement agencies. Its main purpose is to provide statistical information on crime that can be analyzed for later use in multiple arenas that includes law enforcement administration, operation, and management. It is also used by policy makers, politicians, administrators and the press. Beginning in 1930, now under

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).

In the late 1920s, the Committee on Uniform Crime Records was established by the International Association of the Chiefs of Police (IACP). The goal of the Committee was to develop a systematic way to measure crime in the United States. The Committee collaborated and decided to focus on seven (7) specific crime areas which they felt were the most known crimes and the most likely to be reported. These crimes were: burglary, robbery, larceny-theft, rape, auto theft, murder and aggravated assault (James & Rishard, 2008).

While violent crime is declining overall, hate crimes are on the rise. Which resource is better to use- the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Bureau of Justice statistics?

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