Analyzing criminal justice data is one of many methods which allows society to examine and help improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is a standardized system for collection of police data which may be used to reflect police and criminal justice effectiveness. The UCR includes data such as crime rates and the Crime Severity Index (CSI) with the primary “goal of providing police-reported crime statistic that were complete, accurate, and standardized to facilitate temporal (time-to-time) and spatial (place-to-place) comparisons” (Morden and Payls, 2015, P77). However, like the criminal justice system itself, the UCR is far from perfection, but it does successfully present the public with information …show more content…
The UCR is a positivist approach to look at crime, as it examines crimes in society though an objective lens, which means there is no accommodation for biases (Steckley, 2017). It reflects on a collective of social values which society concludes as immoral and criminal behaviours (Morden and Payls, 2015). The UCR includes almost all violations of the Criminal Code, which range in severity. From fraud, break and entering, to something extremely serious like robbery and homicide, are all actions which society deems to be malevolent and evil (Allen, 2016).
A positivist perspective also focuses on using systematic observation and measurements to examine social phenomenon, which reflects on the use of both quantitative and qualitative data in the UCR (Steckley, 2017). Containing mostly quantitative data, the UCR
…show more content…
However, the volume of police-reported crime decreased over the past decade, and the overall severity of violent crime decreased as well. While youth crimes (-2%), attempted murder (-1%), possession of cannabis (-12%), and impaired driving (-3%) show a decline in rates; crime categories such as drug-impaired driving (+11%), violent violations like sexual violations against children (+30%) and aggravated assault (+1%), as well as fraud (+14%) demonstrate a rapid increase (Allen, 2016) (Keighley, 2017). Although the overall crime rates are 28% lower than in 2006, the USRs illustrate that crime rates are going back up, with a rapid increase in crime severity. It appears that there is a crime swap, as some categories of crime are increasing while others are decreasing. Homicide rates may be decreasing due to improvements in emergency medical care, but aggravated assault is still prevalent. Similarly, break and enters and motor vehicle thefts rates are lowering due to the development of better security system; while the widespread of internet usage leads to a rise in cyber crimes such as a rapid increase in fraud (Cartwright, 2017, lecture 3). Traditional crimes did not decrease or fade away, they “have simply moved to the internet” (Cartwright, 2015, tutorial 3) and continue to occur within the
The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) is constructed by the FBI on statistics of crime in the U.S. The FBI consolidates the information it receives from law enforcement officials and integrates all the information into a data that measures crime. This information is compiled by over 18,000 different agencies, from the universities to federal agencies. The information they receive is placed into two different categories, part 1 and part 2 offenses. UCR also measure crime against only women and the NCVS measures against both male and female.
In the criminal justice field, there has been created a number of methods for measuring crime, and with those different methods come different forms of data. In the United States, there are three methods that are available to be utilized: the Uniform Crime Report (Referred to as the UCR), the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).
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.
UCR takes note of all crimes in the Criminal Code annually recorded by the ‘dark figure’ of policing, whereas GSS on Victimization only sources eight types of offences self-reported via phone interviews quinquennial for the past year. The loose ends of both surveys tie together to provide an accurate overall trend of crime rates in Canada. UCR and GSS on Victimization are equally important to the study of crime. They are able to compare crime rates by geographical regions, crime severity, and characteristics of victimization. Criminologists require this information obtained from the surveys to study the causes, effects, and social impact of crime and victimization, in order to determine how to predict, deter, and prohibit criminal activity. They provide a more robust measure of the extent and impact of criminal activity in Canadian society. Together they provide an accurate measurement of crime through police reports and self-reporting of broad social surveys, rather than alone since both are lacking in their own ways. As a difference in timing is a key characteristic in the differences in the polls. UCR is annually conducted, whereas GSS on Victimization is processed every five years for the forgoing 12
Uniform Crime Report data has many pros, but also many cons that come with it. There are many ways of which the Uniform Crime Report can be superior to, but also inferior to victimization and self-report data studies. According to Balkan (2015), the Uniform Crime Report shows crimes reported to police departments across the nation and is a report produced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There are two offense categories in the report: part one and part two offenses. Part one offenses would be your more serious crimes such as homicides, rape, aggravated assaults, and so on. Part two offenses would be more of the property crimes such as fraud, simple assaults, and drug abuse. The Uniform Crime Report does an excellent job presenting the numbers in terms of the part one offenses, however, there are some cons that come with the Uniform Crime
Travis, J., & Waul, M. (2002). Reflections on the crime decline: Lessons for the future. Proceedings from the Urban Institute Crime Decline Forum (pp. 1-38). Washington, D. C.: Urban Institute Justice Policy Center.
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
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 article focused on the question “How well do children fare in remarried families” (Anderson & Greene, 2013, p. 120). Most of the studies compared children in stepfamilies to children living with first-marriage parents. A lot of the research using that approach is criticized for two reasons. This approach pretty much states that first-marriage families are the ideal, perfect family. That idea is not necessarily true. The second reason is because comparing first-marriage families to stepfamilies is not appropriate. This is because children in stepfamilies experience effects on themselves from their parents’ divorce and remarriage. First-marriage family children do not experience these changes. Researchers state that children can be categorized into four groups which include “married, two biological parents; unmarried single mother; married stepparent; unmarried cohabitating” (Anderson & Greene, 2013, p. 120). Studies proved that children living in married-stepfather families were worse off academically than children first-marriage parents. The study also stated that children whom belonged to married-stepparent families were better off academically than unmarried cohabitating stepparents. The type of studies that should be conducted to answer the overall question of children being affected negatively by stepfamilies should study children before and after a remarriage. This type of study is very rare though. Studies proved that children in stepfamilies had no effect on academics, such as reading and math. Research that is conducted on families has three main components: “sampling, measurement, and design” (Anderson & Greene, 2013, p. 121). The two types of studies that are conducted are representative surveys and longitudinal s...
“There is a widespread concern that the level and type of crime reported in the media present a distorted view of the real level of crime in the community” (Media portrayals of crime, 2000). If a crime is portrayed as ‘out of control’ or perceived as ‘dangerous’ to a community through the media, it could create social repercussions, such as isolation of consumers who believe that their community is in a high-crime or high-violence area. Statistics recorded from the Australian Institute of Criminology confirms property crime, such as break and enter, burglary, vehicle theft and shoplifting are continually being reported at a higher rate than violent crime (Media portrayals of crime, 2000). In 2013 alone, there were approximately 739,317 property offences in total (homicide incidents, 2017). Therefore, the increase in property offences in society was the highest recorded in 2013, compared to violent crimes that are decreasing in a total of 151,714 in the same reviewed period. In addition, this evidence shows that the majority of crime in our society is not of a violent nature.
For decades now, including the years 1994 and 1995, the time of the O.J. Simpson murder trial, American law enforcement has used two major data sources to measure crime. First, there is the Uniform Crime Report or UCR. The UCR is compiled data from reported crimes, it is a very accurate system used for murder and those crimes that cannot go unnoticed. Next, we have The National Crime Victim Survey or NCVS which is a unanimous survey, better at accounting for the crimes that may not get reported, crimes such as rape or assault.
Primary source data collection relies on structured interviews and questionnaires, which many argue do not offer enough fluidity to relate to everyday lives and therefore are not valid research tools (Bryman 2001, p.77). Critics also continue to associate positivism and quantitative methods failing to see that quantitative researchers do not apply the scientific method to all data and can account for influencing variables (Bryman 2001, p.77; Matthews and Ross 2010, p.29). Quantitative methods in the social sciences were highlighted by the positivist epistemology during the mid 20th century; however, Jones (2010) explains how the principles of positivist epistemology are not fully consistent with modern quantitative methods in the social sciences (Matthews and Ross 2010, p.27). Positivist research parallels that of the natural sciences, where data collection and hypothesis testing is conducted from information that can be observed and recorded by the senses (Matthews and Ross 2010, p.27). Because information can only be observed, positivists look for regularities and explain causation when one event regularly follows another, which is why many will criticize quantitative methods if they associate them with the positivist approach to research (Jones
The U.S. Department of Labor (2011) reported the national average of unemployment for 2008 was 5.8 percent. The rate dramatically increased in 2009 with an average of 9.3 percent and 9.6 percent for 2010. While unemployment rates have increased, the FBI’s preliminary reports for 2010 show that law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have reported a decrease of 6.2 percent in the number of violent crimes for the first 6 months of 2010 when compared to figures reported for the same time in 2009. The violent crime category includes rape, murder, robbery, and aggravated result. The number of property crimes also decreased 2.8 percent when compared to the same time last year. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Arson decreased 14.6 percent when compared to the same time periods of 2009 (FBI, 2011).