3 Sources of Information about Crime:

Transcription

1 Crime Statistics

2 3 Sources of Information about Crime: 1-UCR: Uniform Crime Report 2-NCVS: National Crime Victimization Survey 3-SRS: Self-Report Surveys

3 UCR: Crime statistics are collected by branches of the criminal justice system (police departments) Crime statistics are compiled and shared by the FBI Data are accumulated nationally as police officers report calls, crimes, and arrests, etc.

4 Strengths: 1-It shows researchers trends and patterns of crime over time; 2-provides crime data at different levels;

5 Weaknesses: 1-recording practices are inconsistent; Police departments are inconsistent in how Police departments are inconsistent in how they document crime (discretion in arrests, reports, and in what to record);

6 2-multiple offenses are not recorded, only the most serious crime; 3-different police departments and police 3-different police departments and police officers may define a type of crime differently;

7 4-not all jurisdictions report crime statistics to FBI; rural, small police departments, etc. 5-not all crimes are reported to the police. DARK FIGURE OF CRIME which refers to those crimes that go unreported to officials.

8 NCVS: NCVS provides estimates of the victimization experiences for the entire U.S. population; NCVS is designed to show the amount of criminal victimization occurring in the U.S. even when such victimization does not come to the attention of the police.

9 Strengths: 1-gets at the Dark Figure of Crime and why crimes go unreported; 2-provides information on the victims of crime (attitudes, cost of crime, injuries, weapon use, beliefs about crime and punishment)

10 3-based on probability sampling (random and representative)

11 Weaknesses: 1-high costs; 2-the data are dependent of the recall of the respondents; 3-respondents are not likely to report failed attempts (UCR does) 4-people may define crime differently than the criminal justice officials;

12 5-respondents often fail to report certain types of crimes and/or crime that involve an acquaintance, relative of the victim; 6-In collecting information, only one person per household is interviewed; 7-Major variation noted in reporting by respondent s race, sex, age, income and education.

13 SRS: ASK PEOPLE TO STATE IF (AND HOW OFTEN) THEY HAVE ENGAGED IN ACTS THAT COULD BE DEFINED AS CRIMINAL OR DELINQUENT;

14 Strengths: 1-gets at the Dark Figure of Crime 2-provides detailed demographic information on offenders (school attendance, family situation, conventional activities, and other individualized and theoretical information);

15 3- a source of information on attitudes and beliefs of those who engage in criminal activity;

16 Weaknesses: 1-lack of standard reporting format; vague measures of criminal involvement are often used (never, often, and sometimes); 2-asks only about trivial offenses; 2-asks only about trivial offenses; (general delinquency, status offenses, etc.)

17 3-dependent on the recall of the respondent; 4-dependent on the willingness of respondents to answer truthfully (lack of validity) tendency to falsify information or exaggerate involvement in crime

18 How do UCR and NCVS Compare???

19 Offenses Measured: UCR Homicide, rape, Robbery (personal & commercial, Assault (aggravated), Burglary (commercial & household), Larceny, Arson, Motor vehicle theft NCVS Rape, Robbery (personal), Assault (aggravated & simple), household burglary, Larceny (personal & household, motor vehicle theft.

20 Scope: UCR Crimes reported to police in most jurisdictions; considerable flexibility in developing small- area data NCVS Crimes both reported and not reported to police; all data are available for a few large geographic areas

21 Collection Method UCR Police department reports to FBI or to centralized State agencies that then report to FBI NCVS Survey interviews; measures total # of crimes committed by asking a national sample of 49,000 households (101,000 persons age 12 and over) about their experiences as victims of crime during a specified period

22 Kinds of info UCR In addition to offense counts, provides information on crime clearances, persons arrested, persons charged, law enforcement officers killed and assaulted, and characteristics of homicide victims NCVS Provides details about victims (age, race, sex, education, income, & whether the victim & offender were related to each other) & about crimes (time & place, whether or not reported, use of weapons, occurrence of injury, economic consequences

23 Sponsor UCR NCVS Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics