Uniform Crime Report

Hate crimes can be shown in different ways, people do not feel safe because many people are becoming victims of it. Such as when the incident happened with Lebron James in his home in Los Angeles California. Lebron James home was vandalized with racist graffiti , making his home feel unsafe because of racial hate that is still going on in America. Hate crimes like vandalism and verbal threats are not physically abusive but can still affect someone mentally. Vandalism can feel like threats , because you never know what will happen after seeing something like that. Also in California there is a lot of Hate crimes in that state. There was 931 hate crimes in California in 2016. It had the most Hate crimes than any other state that year. Hate crimes can also be shown in multiple acts such as murder , aggravated assault , intimidation and rape. Sexual assault is a Hate crime in America that happens to many people for the last 2 decades. One incident where a young boy named Jason Mattison jr. who was openly gay but was viciously and

For example law enforcement may interpret and process a crime like a burglary as a crime of trespassing, so this leads inaccuracy. James gives a good example of this, “For example, if a local law enforcement agency does not closely follow UCR or NIBRS definitions, the agency might classify an assault against a woman as an attempted rape, or a trespass as a burglary” (22). Many times local enforcement agencies do not follow the definitions of the NIBRS in the interpretation of crime, and this leads to crime rates in different categories to be skewed. Another problem with the NIBRS is the organization (FBI) that interprets crimes does not include many types of crimes, and these crimes are many times white collar crimes. According to James, “the NIBRS most likely undercounts corporate and occupational crimes” (22). The next time of crime measurement has many problems as well, and this the National Victimization

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.

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 UCR is able to provide the number of crimes that have been reported to law enforcement agencies.

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

In 2009, 6,604 hate crime incidents were reported to the FBI, 48.8% of which were motivated by race, 19.7% by religious prejudice, 18.5%by sexual orientation, 11.8% by ethnicity, and 1.5% by disability bias (Hate Crime Statistics, 2009). Recently, the FBI released the 2010 statistics that unfortunately reveal a slight increase in the number of hate crime incidents: 6,628 incidents were reported in 2010, 47.3% of which were motivated by race, 20% by religious prejudice, 19.3% by sexual orientation, 12.8% by ethnicity, and .6% by disability bias (Hate Crime Statistics, 2010). While racially-motivated and disability-motivated crimes appear to have decreased, hate crime motivated by religion, sexual orientation, and ethnicity has risen in the last year. Improvements in hate crime laws and punishments are necessary in order for these statistics to decrease.

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.

Through my understanding, I don’t believe that the Uniform Crime Report and the National Crime Victimization Survey report at the same rate. The UCR takes data that is reported from local law enforcement agencies, sent to the FBI and compiles a summary that is released for public viewing. The NCVS sends out surveys that allows individuals to report crimes, that they may have not, otherwise. While there is a likelihood that many victims will not report their crimes, overall, the majority do report, allowing for a greater number of accurate reports being delivered.

There are two programs that measure the magnitude, nature, and impact of crime in the nation. One of them is the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR). The UCR was originally started with only reporting seven major offenses. Which were: murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny (theft) and motor vehicle theft. Later on it mandated for an arson to be added therefore making it the eight we have now. The UCR program uses data collected from law enforcement received every month to come up with its report. Along with the numbers for trends and counts for crime. The report has much more information as well. Such as who was arrested, their age, gender, and race.

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

Nixon started using the UCR to convince people in the US that if they don’t put money into law enforcement agencies, society will collapses or turn chaotic. Thee key to gaining conservatives support were racists ideologies, but after the 1960’s they couldn’t use this anymore so they had to turn to something else. “But of all the misleading and distorted information about crime, none is more damaging than the oldest established source of national data on crime rates and trends: the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report (UCR)” (Chambliss 35). The UCR is based on what a police sees when he first gets there, not when a person is actually convicted. So for example, if a person is assaulted by five people they will count it as five assaults, or if a cop arrives at a suicide, but thinks it is a murder, it will be reported in the UCR as a murder. These distortions in counting crime are encouraged, so the FBI tends to exaggerate by making the wrong comparisons with other countries. For example, a country like Sweden is a country with a low crime rate compared to the US would make the US look like the crime rate is uncontrollable. They focus on wrong temporal comparisons within the US in which they include people arrested opposed to those convicted, they use years in the US past when rate of crime was dramatically lower and they also include murder by strangers. These economic incentives ere used to make law enforcement stronger, because they wanted to make sure private corporations were still profitable and to expand the market. This is because the state bureaucracies and politicians will always be interested in economic

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