Uniform Crime Report

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As I combed through the violent crime data for my area, I realized there is a lot of discrepancies and unreported crimes. I started to think why would there be so much unreported crimes and I realize a few things: 1) law enforcement agencies do not take it seriously to report crimes to the Uniform Crime Reports 2) many victims do not report their crimes and 3) crime reporting needs to be uniformed and mandatory. The violent crime statistics in my area are quite alarming and yet shocking.
The areas I researched for violent crimes are Merrillville, Gary, Hammond, East Chicago, Portage, Hobart, and Crown Point. These are the areas that I have some relationship to such as my living space, where I frequently visit to see friends and family members and where I catch the train at for work. According to the webpage Neighborhood Scout, Gary, Hobart, East Chicago and Hammond have the highest crime rate for my area (Neighborhood Scout, 2015). This is not surprising to me.
According the Table 10 of the FBI-UCR, Lake County, Indiana had only 38 violent crimes and 1 murder (FBI- UCR, 2013). This is impossible and proves that agencies are not …show more content…

“Victims who experienced severe distress as a result of a violent victimization were more likely to report the crime to police and receive victim services that victims with no distress or mild distress” (Langton and Truman. 2014). In other words, if a victim is not severely distress then it is more than likely the crime will not be committed. Needless to say, Gary had a total of 56 forcible rapes committed in 2012 along with Merrillville 6, East Chicago 9, and Hammond 18 (FBI-UCR Data Online, 2013). With this in mind, it is easily to be said that there were many more forcible rapes that were not reported for reasons such as fear, the relationship between the attacker and the victim, and other

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