What Are The Strengths And Weaknesses Of UCR And NIBRS

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) stemmed from a mid-1980s report, is an incident-based reporting system (some states use a customized version) that is used by law enforcement agencies in the United States for the collecting and reporting of data on crimes that are known by police. NIBRS is the result of law enforcement thoroughly evaluating and modernizing the UCR (Uniform Crime Reports). The UCR, produced by the FBI, was initially developed by the IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) in 1931 in which police departments across jurisdictions could exchange information in regards to crime. Local, state and federal agencies generate NIBRS data from their

The UCR is also called Uniform Crime Report is a recording system that is provided by the Federal Bureau of investigation and the purpose for the UCR is to help law enforcement agencies to exchange information about reported crime (Meadows. PG 4). The NCVS, also known as National Crime Victimization is another source of victimization data and it also helps law enforcement to collect information about the victim and it tracks the crime of rape, robbery, assault, and larceny crimes.

One of the first problems that this system has to do with the “procedures that captures it,” and this leads to why we must be cautious about this methods. The procedure involves the crime to be initially reported to the police. This beginning procedure already has a problem, and according to James, the problem is, “the NIBRS collect data on the number of offenses known to law enforcement each year. However, not all crimes that occur are known to the police” (2). The procedure that is used in NIBRS to get the number of crimes begins initially with the crime being reported to

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.

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

Although NIBRS and UCR seem alike they very in a bunch of different ways. They are both regulated by the FBI and used for the same general concepts however NIBRS goes into more ground detail that UCR. NIBRS has 46 Group A offenses and UCR only have 8 offenses. NIBRS differentiates between completed and attempted crimes, however, UCR does not. Another difference between the two are that Uniform Crime Reports only tend to report the most serious offense reported when multiple crimes are reported in the same period of events. Also, The National Incident-Bases Reporting System can be submitted electronically as Uniform Crime Reporting Data is a written document that has to be hand entered into the computer for

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 National Crime Recording Standards (NCRS) act nationally upon the police service by promoting consistency between police forces. This will help the police forces around the country know how to record crime and by providing victim-orientated approach to crime recording. The NCRS has three basic principles:

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) was first established under the police act in 1997 and was launched in March 2002 due to public concern about children, young people and vulnerable adults. This was then merged in 2012 with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) to form the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The Disclosure and Barring Service is a check which must be taken before any practitioner is employed to work with children, young people or vulnerable adults. It ensures that the practitioner is clear of any criminal offences such as abuse.

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

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

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

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has the same base idea as the UCR, the biggest difference is that the NIBRS is more updated and accurate, as well as it provides a lot more detail in its reporting than the UCR. For example the number of offenses made by one person are not limited when reporting and collecting data. Detail on each and every crime is reported, as well as the report making note of the difference of attempting and completing crimes. Not only can citizens still locate and identify crimes made in a certain neighborhood or area but they can also get accurate specific detail on the criminal events. One of the only disadvantages of NIBRS is that the statistics in the reports will not be completely current because there are some criminal events that will not get submitted until the next month, so some of the accurate information is a month delayed. (U.S. Department of Justice)

The National Incident Based Reporting System is currently being tested to replace the Uniform Crime Report. This new system will expand from the eight major crimes currently being used in the Uniform Crime Report and it will also include demographic data on victim, perpetrator and crime. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “The NIBRS is an incident-based reporting system in which agencies collect data on each single crime occurrence. NIBRS data come from local, state, and federal automated records’ systems. An agency can build a system to suit its own needs, including