Preview

Measuring Crime

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1237 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Measuring Crime
Measuring Crime
CJA/204
October 9, 2013
Richard Pacheco

Measuring Crime
There are two different instruments used in reporting crime. There are also major crimes reporting program used in the United States. These major crime reporting programs do have a purpose and does give statistical information on crime in the United States. There are a difference between crime rates, arrest rates, clearance rates, and recidivism rates. The information reported about crime rates can be misleading and give inaccurate information about the crime rate in the United States. Crime and recidivism statistics can both give some important about crime in the United States.
Instruments used to measure crime
There are different ways that crime is reported in the United States. The media reports crime and influence society perception of crime (Schmalleger, 2011). This sometimes causes public opinion on crime unrealistic (Schmalleger, 2011). Statistic data provides a better view on the amount of crime occurring than what is reported by the news media. The statistic reports are not as accurate as society would want, but it still gives a better understanding of the amount of crimes, types of crimes and also the frequency of those crimes than the news media. People who are the victims of a crime are the ones who report the crime and allow the crimes to be placed in a crime database (Schmalleger, 2011).
Major crime reporting programs
The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) are the two major reporting of crime programs used in reporting crime in the United States (Schmalleger, 2011). Crime is computed by adding the major crimes reported to the police. The police report these crimes to the F.B.I who publishes the findings in the UCR. The UCR provides an annual report of incidents and rate of the reported crime that occurs throughout the United States (Schmalleger, 2011). The UCR program created a crime index to create a
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Best Essays

    UCR Vs. NIBRS: Their Influence On Criminal Justice Research
    • 2491 Words
    • 10 Pages

    UCR Vs. NIBRS: Their Influence On Criminal Justice Research

    Statistics is the foundation for the criminal justice system as a field of research and scientific study. It allows for the expansion of information both in criminology and the criminal justice system itself. Crime is mostly a sociological response…

    • 2491 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Incident-Based Reporting System (UCRS) And The URC/NIBRS
    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Incident-Based Reporting System (UCRS) And The URC/NIBRS

    Criminal statistics are based on reported recorded crimes. In the United States of America there two major statistics used in crime investigating. One is the Uniform Crime Reports(UCR) and The National Incident -Based Reporting System(NIBRS). The other is the National Crime Victimization Survey(NVCS).…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cjs 200 Week One Checkpoint
    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Cjs 200 Week One Checkpoint

    The Uniform Crime Reporting Program, or UCR, relates crime rates to arrest rates and clearance rates annually through the ‘Crime in the United States’ publication. This report (although not foolproof) gives a statistical picture of how arrests and clearance rates compare to actual crimes reported based on information reported from law enforcement departments across the United States. The UCR, as well as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), may show higher rates of crime, arrest, and clearance in areas with higher population or lower rates in areas with lower population. The most successful way to improve the correlation of crime, arrest, and clearance rates in effort to combat criminal activity would be to rely on the information provided…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cja 204 Measuring Crime Research Paper
    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Cja 204 Measuring Crime Research Paper

    The data has many purposes to many people like city officials who use the data to place emphasis on certain crimes. The data is also important to media and public citizens who use the information to conduct research or shop for homes. Though the information is mostly accurate, the Federal Bureau of Investigations discourages negatively using the information to depict a region, state, county, or city. There are numerous factors that influence the fluctuation of certain crimes in different areas so using common sense to decipher the sociological factors is…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program
    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Analysis Of The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program

    The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is a nationwide cooperative effort of over 16,000 cities, county and state law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crime brought to their attention. This program was develop in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police provide reliable crime statistics for the nation. Each year, several statistical publications are attain and the information, which has been selected by several thousand law enforcement agencies across the United States is design and inputted into the uniform crime report database. This analysis can help determine whether the crime rate is under control…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Defining and Measuring Crime
    • 1518 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Defining and Measuring Crime

    This module will examine the importance of criminal data and its effect on the criminal justice system. For instance, is it important for a law enforcement agency to evaluate the crimes occurring in their city or jurisdiction? Is it important for citizens to know how safe is the area in which they live? If so, how is that information gathered and disseminated to the general public? How does the law enforcement component of the criminal justice system use the information to reduce crime or even predict it in the future? With the advent of applicable technology, law enforcement agencies and criminologists are now examining crime patterns, suspect information, as well as date and time of crimes in an effort to predict probable occurrences and locations of future crimes.…

    • 1518 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Crime Victimization Survey
    • 118 Words
    • 1 Page

    Crime Victimization Survey

    A more accurate measurement of crime victimization, I believe, is the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). It states it directly in the name the purpose of the survey. Information that is collected in the NCVS is nonfatal personal crimes, property and vehicle crimes all reported and not reported to law enforcement, where the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) only contains information reported to law enforcement. The NCVS collects information about the offender such as, sex, age, race and Hispanic origin as well as the victim-offender relationship. It also includes the nature of the injury, if any weapons were used, where it occurred, additionally if the crime was reported to the police and the victims experience with criminal justice system.…

    • 118 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Crime Data Comparison
    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Crime Data Comparison

    In the late 1920’s the idea was recognized by the International Association of Chiefs of Police or most commonly known as the (IACP), that there needed to be a more reliable and accurate way to keep track of all of the crime data and statistics. This information was needed to determine the crimes that were changing from year to year as well as the sources of what could be changing these statistics such as population changes, poverty changes, and so on and so forth. After a few years of deliberation over the record-keeping practices being used at the time, planning for a system called the Uniform Crime Report program (UCR) in which it came in to working effect in 1929. It was in 1930 a year later, in January that the United States Congress enacted a Code that gave the UCR the authority by the attorney general to gather information about crimes. The attorney general then delegated the responsibility to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to act as the bookkeepers for collecting all the crime data for the UCR. In 1930 the FBI became the first agency to start a resource to do just that. Since the beginning of the UCR program every year new data has been collected and published in order to crime statistics for each area across the United States. Information stored would include numbers of different crimes such as murders, arson, burglary, property crimes, rapes, larceny, etc. The UCR program started in January 1930 with data gathered from law enforcement agencies in 400 cities from 43 states submitting information and currently includes approximately 17,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide that voluntarily contribute their crime statistics.…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Uniform Crime Victimization Survey
    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Uniform Crime Victimization Survey

    In the case of the Uniform Crime Report, published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the data only represents a quantitative analysis of crimes reported by law enforcement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The data collected provides virtually no information on the characteristics of the crime or its victim(s) (Chilton & Jarvis, 1999). Furthermore, the Uniform Crime Report is an inaccurate representation, as it does not account for the dark figure of crime statistics, which are crimes that go unreported to law enforcement for a variety of reasons (Fagin, 2016)…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Uniform Criminal Act (UCR)
    • 186 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Uniform Criminal Act (UCR)

    Every Year the FBI record the number of criminal acts and the number of people arrested. They call it the Uniform Criminal Act (UCR) which is the most widely used source of national crime and delinquency statistics. Many question whether it’s valid or not because less than half of all victims report the crime to the police. They came up with a solution by creating the National Crime Victimization Survey (NVS) that address the non reporting issue. NCVS collects information on crimes suffered by individuals and households. Another survey called Self-Report is used to measure the extent of delinquency. They can describe, in detail, their recent and lifetime participation in criminal activity. This report is given in groups, so they can ensure…

    • 186 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Uniform Crime Report
    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Uniform Crime Report

    The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) was designed, developed and implemented by law enforcement for use as a tool for operational and administrative purposes (Uniform, 2004). The program was developed in 1929 under the auspices of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and was later endorsed by the National Sheriff’s Association, which acts in an advisory capacity today. It was the first comprehensive system of crime information developed on a national scale. Because statutes varied so greatly from state to state in their use of terminology for describing criminal behavior, a set of definitions was developed for criminal acts to overcome this problem and it was determined that law enforcement would tabulate the number of criminal acts as defined by the UCR program as they were brought to the attention of law enforcement. Because of the volume involved, it was decided that only serious criminal acts would be counted.…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Crime Reporting & Rates Response Paper Essay Example
    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Crime Reporting & Rates Response Paper Essay Example

    Crime rates and Arrest rates are divided into different categories and then compared and divided by how many reports from each type of…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Fear Of Crime Research Paper
    • 326 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Fear Of Crime Research Paper

    Crime is most often a fundamental dependent variable. When you ask the question, what causes crime, the things you may study are who are the offenders, types, ages, victims, what is the descriptive nature, and you may also count the number of crimes that have been committed. Crime can also be considered an independent variable. You will ask things like how does the crime that was committed affect the actual sentencing outcomes, how does the types and number of crimes affect the overall fear of crime, and how does the levels of crime that is violent throughout the community impact the policing policies and decisions on a local level. The measurement of crime involves collecting the data that represents the problems that are being targeted. There are many other things, but this is a good summarization. This collection of data is considered the “outcome” measures, and it is very important that they actually represent the true scope of certain programs and their intentions as accurate as they can.…

    • 326 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    International Crime Data
    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages

    International Crime Data

    The author then explains the new agency in charge of surveying crime data as," an updated version of the UCR called the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)" (Dammer, 2006, p 21). Then he explains where the information comes from. Dammer states," It is collected by over 16, 000 city, county, and law enforcement agencies" (Dammer, 2006, p 20). This method gives agencies an insight into the incidence of each crime committed. Another survey used in the United States is the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) which helps acquire estimates of unreported crime. Self-reported surveys are also used by giving citizens anonymous questioners to complete. The information is then compiled to acquire how many victimless crimes are committed and not reported to authorities. After all information is collected from various sources, it is sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Crime Reporting and Rates Response
    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Crime Reporting and Rates Response

    The purpose of major crime reporting is to have a system in place that can produce statements on crimes based on statistics recorded by law enforcements agencies. This allows people to see what the crime is looking like in that area and make and adjustment to help resolve the problems. It is very important for a person looking for a new home to look at these reports before purchasing a home in that neighborhood. High crime rates not only are dangerous for your family, but it also can affect your premiums on your insurance because insurance agencies use these reports also. I think the system is working correctly if it does what it is supposed to do. If it steers a family with kids away from a bad neighborhood to a good one, then the reports were successful. These systems also inform family’s when it is time to move out of their current neighborhood. If the report starts to show an increased rate of crime, a family might want to make a decision to move to a better neighborhood. The uniform crime report measures crimes based on the offense. For example, a crime such as assault, murder, and rape is measured in the number of victims. Crimes such as burglary or robbery are measured in the number of incidents. Clearance rate is calculated by dividing the number of crimes that are cleared by the total number of crimes recorded and are used by various criminal justice groups to measure the number of crimes solved by the police. As for a way to improve the correlation between crime rates, arrest rates, and clearance rates; I would have to say that I am not sure. The system on this is doing a good job but crimes are on the increase so it makes it extremely hard to judge.…

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More

Related Topics