Evaluating crime statistics regularly is crucial in maintaining law and order within a country or a city and therefore criminologists strive to investigate in depth in order to examine the nature and impact of criminal activity in the country (Weatherburn, 2011).
The general public tend to judge the severity of a particular crime by its prevalence and consequences to society or victims. Crime statistics enable criminologists and researchers in getting familiar with the crime trend and facilitating crime control policy formulating in order to deter crime further (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2010). Consequently, crime statistics can be seen as an indicator in representing social harmony and stability. However, crime data is not merely
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There may also be scenarios in which police officers are reluctant to file a formal report when it is not very likely that the case will be processed in court afterwards (Skogan, 1975). Victims with higher-status are more likely to convince police officers in filing a report. This is because the police tend to act according to their pre-set assessment standards in writing crime reports (Skogan, 1975).
Omission of important parts
Several crucial elements of crime reports such as the characteristics of offenders and surrounding circumstances where most crimes take place are not included in most UCRs (Skogan, 1975; Loftin & McDowall, 2010.) Furthermore, some missing data is documented poorly that it is difficult to discover for analysis (Loftin &McDowall, 2010). This inevitably renders bias. Characteristics of crime victims are also significant parts of UCRs (Skogan, 1975). However, this is found to be absent in UCRs which may hinder study of the nature of particular crime
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For instance, it is not likely for victims to report conflicts with people they acquaint such as friends or relatives to avoid embarrassment (Skogan, 1975). Crimes of sensitive nature like rape and domestic violence are unlikely to be reported (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1981; Skogan, 1975). Victims may also have tendencies to make up stories to mask their culpability (Skogan, 1975). All these unfavourable factors constitute underestimation of crimes.
Validity and relevance vary over time
The ability for crime victims to remember crime details fades out over time which leads to inaccuracy and bias in deriving crime data (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1981). Victims are often required to recall crime details with time frames that are distinct from the event (Skogan, 1975; James, 2008). Consequently, most of them are unable to remember the incidents and recall important aspects of the crime. Even though victims are able to remember the incident, some of the details surrounding the incident are distorted or remembered wrongly (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1981). Due to the forgetting trend of victims over time, instructions and signposts are used to guide victims in recalling crime incidents (Skogan, 1975). This inevitably misguides victims and creates biased result which leads to irrelevance of crime
Exploring Why a Large Number of Crimes Aren't Reported. For the large number of crimes that are committed, the biggest. percentage of them is not reported to the police or authorities. This could be due to several reasons.
As the is a very formal method for obtaining data, it is often a very cold data collection initiative in comparison to the next method used to collect data on crime, the NIBRS. An extension of the UCR, the National Incident-Based Reporting System is a system to collect and study data created from the victim and offender of a criminal act. This d...
In contemporary society, there are various methodologies for collecting data (Linden 2012). That being said, there are pros and cons to each that are based on reliability and validity; where reliability is consistency of the statistics, and validity is a measure of how accurate the results are in accordance with the research topic. This ties in with how this paper will explore the Uniform Crime Report system (UCR); a measure of crime that is used the most. UCR statistics reflect the crimes that are reported to the police throughout the country. victimization and self-report surveys, which are statistics that reinforce the findings revealed by the UCR, will also be explored. Lastly, the issue of media coverage of crime news will be examined.
In Canada, crime is measured using a combination of both police and victim-reported information. Statistics Canada presents surveys to criminologists to analyze the data of criminalization and victimization to determine understand criminal behaviour, how the public perceives it, and how to prevent it. Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR) intended to standardize the collection of police-reported crime statistics from across Canada. Figures generated by UCR are less than perfect, due to variations in the grey lines of recording and interpreting crime between different police. (Cartwright, 2015) The General Social Survey (GSS) was implemented later as a broad social survey to poll for crimes not reported to police. This was because Statistics
Weatherburn, D. (2011) ‘Uses and abuses of crime statistics’, Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice, 153: 1-16
We hear a lot about the crime rates going up and down from the media and they tend to expand on specific types of criminal behavior that might be of interest to the public. When politicians are running for office we are told that the crime rates are down due to the tough crime policies that they have been implemented. Citizens seek crime rates for assistance in determining if the area they reside in is safe. Some people wish to get a general idea of the crime rates for a specific neighborhood where they are thinking of purchasing a house. But what is never explained is where do the crime statistics come from and were there any factors that could have had an effect on their reliability. Crime statistics, which are created from what is reported to the police, are often unreliable. There are several influential factors that can make crime statistics both increase and decrease at any time. Most police departments, but not all, use Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) to submit their statistics to the state. Attempting to compare two police agency's crime statistics is almost impossible because not all police agencies use the UCR program for classifying crimes. UCR is a national data reporting policy that is maintained by the state and regulated by the FBI. This policy requires police agencies to report their monthly statistics by following a hierarchy scale for classifying the criminal offenses. A hierarchy scale is a list of crimes in a specific order of importance used to pick out the highest crime when there are multiple crimes committed in one incident. An example: a citizen contacts the police and makes a report of a burglary, a rape and a larceny all occurring in one incident. A...
For decades, researchers have tried to determine why crime rates are stronger and why different crimes occur more often in different locations. Certain crimes are more prevalent in urban areas for several reasons (Steven D. Levitt, 1998, 61). Population, ethnicity, and inequality all contribute to the more popular urban. Determining why certain crimes occur more often than others is important in Criminal Justice so researchers can find a trend and the police can find a solution (Rodrigo R. Soares, 2004, 851). The Uniform Crime Reports are a method in which the government collects data, and monitors criminal activity in the United States (Rodrigo R. Soares, 2004, 851). They have both positive and negative attributes that have influenced
Criminology is the study of crime and criminals. In criminology, crime data is gathered in many different ways. All of these ways are part of the National Incident-Based Reporting system, which is a program that collects data on each respond crime incident (CITATION). There are Primary Sources of collecting crime data, and Secondary Sources of collecting crime data. Under the Primary Sources of collecting crime data are the National Crime Victimization Survey, Self Report Surveys, and the Uniform Crime Reports. These reporting surveys and official records gather information for Criminologists about all types of crimes. Some examples of these are homicide, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, arson, burglary, and larceny. Criminologists use these also to measure the nature and extent of the crime, along with behavior and personalities of the offenders. Secondary Sources of collecting crime data are Experimental Research, Observational and Interview Research, Data Mining, Crime Mapping, Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review, and Cohort Research. These gathering techniques gather informatio...
In general, official statistics of crime recorded by the police and surveys of the public such as victim surveys and self-report studies are the three main measures of the extent of crime in Britain. The oldest method is to rely on official data collected by criminal justice agencies, such as data on arrests or convictions. The other two rely on social surveys. In one case, individuals are asked if they have been victims of crime; in the other, they are asked to self-report their own criminal activity. (Terence P. Thornberry and Marvin D. Krohn) Although these are a main secondary source of quantitative data, each of them may contain some drawbacks. Thus, this essay will introduce these three methods and demonstrates their disadvantages, such as the police crime statistics exclude the unreported and unrecorded crime;
Understanding Crime: Theory and Practice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishers. Woodham, J., & Toye, K. (2007). Empirical Tests of Assumption of Case Linkages & Offender’s profiling with Commercial Robbery.
The 2002 crime figures for England and Wales comprised of two separate reports, brought together for the first time: (i) Crime statistics recorded by constabularies and (ii) The British Crime Survey (BCS), based on 33,000 interviews. The BCS is regarded as a more reliable measure of actual levels of crime because it includes experiences of crime that go unreported. The British crime survey of 2002 revealed:
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 property crimes. (Barkan, 2012). However, there are both some positive and negative aspects of this type of crime measurement. The following paper will explore the small amount of pros and numerous cons associated with the Uniform Crime Report.
According to Rachel Boba, “Crime analysis is a law enforcement function that involves systematic analysis for identifying and analyzing patterns and trends in crime and disorder” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime analysis).The information on these patterns can assist law enforcement agencies in the deployment of resources in a more effective manner; it can also help detectives to identify and catch suspects. Crime analysis also plays a role in improvising solutions to crime problems, and developing crime prevention strategies. There are various types of technology that is used in crime analysis. Crime analysis relies heavily on computer technology, and over the past fifteen years there has been a significant improvement in computer hardware and software that has led to tremendous developments in this field. One form of hardware that is used by Crime analysts to complete most of their work is Desktop personal computers, laptop computers are also used by crime analysts for fieldwork and presentations. Other forms of hardware that are used include color laser printers that can produce high-quality documents quickly, plotters which are printers that can produce large poster size color maps, scanners, and digital cameras, these specific types of hardware is mostly used by police departments when analyzing crime.
Everyone is affected by crime, whether they are a direct victim, a family member or the victim’s friend. It can interfere with individual’s daily life, their personal sense of safety and their ability to trust others.
There are various components that a text has to be considered “feminist”. When there is a concern for power relations within the group of characters. Including a strong central female character that stands out among stereotypical female roles. Another is when gender roles are seemingly reversed and blurred. The women may seem more masculine and the men more feminine.