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Weaknesses in official crime stats
Source and limitations of crime statistics
Weaknesses in official crime stats
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Index crimes in 1990 were taking our nation by storm. By far the most widely found index crime was aggravated assault. The UCR shows that for aggravated assault in the U.S. in 1990 there was over 751,407 cases of aggravated assault reported, but there were also more that the UCR didn’t pick (UCR, 23, 1990) up. On the other hand the NCVS in 1990 reported that there was nearly half more then that of the UCR, 901,039 were in fact accounted for according to the NCVS (NCVS, 1, 1990).
The NCVS was designed with four primary objectives: (1) to develop detailed information about the victims and consequences of crime, (2) to estimate the number and types of crimes not reported to the police, (3) to provide uniform measures of selected types of crimes, and (4) to permit comparisons over time and types of areas. The survey categorizes crimes as "personal" or "property." Personal crimes cover rape and sexual attack, robbery, aggravated and simple assault, and purse-snatching/pocket-picking, while property crimes cover burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, and vandalism. The data from the NCVS survey are particularly useful for calculating crime rates, both aggregated and disaggregated, and for determining changes in crime rates from year to year.
The Uniform Crime Reporting Program formulated the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). NIBRS presents comprehensive, detailed information about crime incidents to law enforcement, researchers, governmental planners, students of crime, and the general public. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division conducted the pilot demonstration of this program in 1987. Since then, implementation of NIBRS has been commensurate with the resources, abilities, and limitations of the contributing law enforcement agencies. Although participation grows steadily, data is still not pervasive enough to make broad generalizations about crime in the United States.
Reason being for this huge difference in statistics is that the NCVS is compiled primarily of reports that are taken from households anonymously and show not only reported crimes, but also unreported crimes as well. As for the UCR, this FBI report only goes but the numbers sent to them by local and state police departments and does not include those statistics of unreported crimes.
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is information that is gathered by the U.S Census Bureau. Unlike UCR this information is not given by law enforcement officials, but by a household survey that is conducted about twice a year. When the survey is being commenced they place the crimes into two different categories; person crimes and property crimes. NCVS has four objectives when obtaining information; “(1) to develop detailed information about the victims and consequences of crime, (2) to estimate the number and types of crimes not reported to the police, (3) to provide uniform measures of selected typed of crimes, and (4) to permit comparisons over time and types of areas.” (NACJD)
In order to found out specific numbers on the crimes that were being taken place in Lufkin, Texas, it was critical to get data from Lufkin, Texas patrol personnel and the Lufkin County Police Department. The police department is in charge of crime reporting, enforcement, prevention, and investigations. They are the first responders to any type of crime in the Lufkin. Texas neighborhoods. The Lufkin Police Department put out an annual report to provide people with a glance of data and statistics of crime, racial profiling, traffic, staffing, and budget from the Lufkin County. This annual report is then sent to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program, where statistics become a useful summary tool to compare annual incidents and trends. Index crimes are categorized as violent crimes that are serious in nature and most likely frequently being reported. Violent crimes are crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Property crimes are crimes such as burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Arson is also a property crime but it is a crime that is not reported in the crime index (Crime Rates in Lufkin, Texas, 2016, pp. 3,
Without a doubt, war is an experience that can define a person, for good or bad. In the case of author Kurt Vonnegut, his experiences in World War II greatly affected his writing. Most of his works in his long bibliography of novels, articles, short stories, and plays have some sort of reference or allusion to war or other world conflicts. Kurt Vonnegut uses his novels Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five to preach against war by stringing together loose and outlandish story lines in a satirical and melancholy fashion.
O’Brien, Tim. How to Tell a True War Story. Literature and Ourselves. Sixth Edition. Eds.
In the article Victims and Offenders in Two Crime Statistics Programs: A Comparison of the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), (herein after NCVS and NIBRS will be called “systems” when referencing the statistics of the nature of the crimes), the comparison of the two reporting systems for crimes are similar. These two reporting systems are a visual representation of the crimes that are reported. They do not account for crimes that are not reporting or crimes that are reported after the date. They report crime only when there is an official report, such as one by the officer that comes to the scene of the crime to take statements from the individuals. NCVS and NIBRS are only report burglary, larceny, aggravated assault, and vehicle theft. They do not report on more serious crimes such as rape or murder.
Since the beginning of history, human society has centered around war. People throughout the ages have attempted to understand why wars occur, and the effect of war on the people who fight in them. Authors have utilized the power of language to attempt to grasp the struggle and the horror of war, and make it accessible to the public. For example, Hemingway’s “In Another Country” and Bierce’s “Coup de Grace” both provide a glimpse into different aspects of war. Although they both pertain to the idea of war, “In Another Country” focuses on the psychological trauma of war while “Coup de Grace” showcases the horror of war. This is visible in the theme, setting, and characters of both stories.
...es. The article discusses further into the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) that was created to partially correct the issues presented in the UCR. The NIBRS was even created to partially correct some of the unanticipated trends regarding race and crime that has been revealed. Scientific research will continue to increase in order to learn more about the nature of UCR data until the errors start to show signs that it is decreasing. I intend to use this article for my research project to describe what criminologists think about the criminal statistics collected by the UCR, and why would criminologists still use the UCR if there are flaws that could make it inaccurate. I also intend to use this article to discover the value of data collected by the UCR that would provide new ways of doing research that address incidents of crime in the United States.
There was a decline in crime during the 1990s. Our country enjoyed seven years of declining crime for the period 1991-98, the most recent data available. During this period crime declined by 22% and violent crime by 25%. These are welcome developments, particularly following the surge of crime and violence of the late 1980s. This decline occurred during a time when the national prison population has increased substantially, rising from 789,60 in 1991 to 1,252,830, a 59% rise in just seven years and a 47% increase in the rate of incarceration, taking into account changes in the national population (Mauer 21-24).
...ported to law enforcement, and also summarize the reasons victims give for not reporting a crime. The NCVS includes data of national incidents of rape, sexual assaults, robbery, assault, burglary, personal and household larceny, and motor vehicle thefts. The NCVS will not include data from crimes such as murders, kidnapping, and victimless crimes. In 1977 the NCVS dropped data that contained information from commercial robberies, and burglaries of businesses. Through this survey it will show the crimes that were completed or attempted but the survey only includes data for household members who are twelve years or older.
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.
The next four years were spent traveling the states fighting in some of the most well known battles of the Civil War . Ambrose Bierce’s experience during the Civil War where he faced the dangers of nature and man influenced his writing.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1973–1997 National Crime Victimization Survey data [Web site data files]. Available Online at http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/qa125.html. 30 September 1999. Washington, DC: BJS, 1998.
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;
National Center for Victims of Crime. (2001). Primary crime prevention. Retrieved December 2, 2013, from http://www.safetycops.com/crime_prevention.htm
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the nation's primary source of information on criminal victimization. The NCVS collects information on nonfatal personal crimes; rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated and simple assault, and personal larceny, and household property crimes, including burglary, motor vehicle theft, and other theft both reported and not reported to police. For each victimization incident, the NCVS collects information about the offender,