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National incident-based reporting system
National incident-based reporting system
National incident-based reporting system
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Crime data is a resource being used to help understand who the victims are, their age, race, what type of crime they have committed. The more information someone has about crime the more prepared they can be to deal with the victim, evaluate programs that help prevent crime. There are several official sources used UCR, NCVS, NIBRS that are used. There are pros and cons to each source and the following information will include some of the positive and some of the negatives points of each report. This is not inclusive by any means, there are many different various pros and cons of each report.
The UCR is the Uniformed Crime Rate is a record of crime reported to law enforcement agencies, only crimes that are reported to law agencies are included.
There is no way to track data of a crime if it is not reported. Laws change every year, so the data used to provide the report needs to be mined thoroughly to provide correct information. It can be difficult to evaluate and use the information provided because it is usually at least a year old before it is released. Crime trends change over time, what was being reported a year ago might not be a problem at report time. One of positive sides of the Uniformed Crime Rate is that is can show a specific area of crime and the crime trends for that area. It can tell someone where the safest area is to move to, go to school etc. The UCR can also help criminologists understand what has worked in the past in fighting crime and trends that help them evaluate what needs to be changed, “The FBI claims that the modern UCR compiled with computers and data bases is the most comprehensive analysis of violent crime and public crime in the nation. (Fagin, 2015, p. 53)”. The National Crime Victimization Survey is another major source of crime data. “This report is a sample of U.S. households that gathers detailed information about crimes from victims. This report information is data about crime incidents such as the relationship between the victim and offender, use of any drugs or alcohol, bystander behavior. Suspected offender gang involvement and self- protection measures taken by the victim. This survey gathers data from crime victims, (Fagin, 2015, p. 57).” The NCVS reports some information that is not included in the UCR, however, the information depends on self- reporting by a victim and may not always be correct. This report also doesn’t pinpoint the geographic location of the crimes unlike the UCR. Another issue with the NCVS and the UCR, they do not have the same definitions of crimes. When there is a different definition for various crimes the accuracy of the report can be skewed. The purpose of the NCVS is to gather crime information that has not been reported to law enforcement. There is a big difference between actual crime and reported crime, also keep in mind, NCVS does not report the crime of homicide since homicide victims cannot be surveyed. According to the National Achieve of Criminal Justice Data, “ National Incident Based Reporting System, NIBRS is the concept of a crime incident. An "incident" is defined for NIBRS reporting purposes as one or more offenses committed by the same offender, or group of offenders acting in concert, at the same time and place. "Acting in concert" requires that the offenders actually commit or assist in the commission of the crime(s) (Unk, n.d.)”. Unlike UCR, NIBRS also reports a third category - Crimes Against Society.