Age And Crime Essay

This week we were introduced to different reports that are used to calculate crime rates, the relationship between age and crime, and finally discussed two theories that are used to explain that relationship. To begin with, the Uniformed Crime Report, also known as the UCR, was the first report discussed which started in the 1930s. The UCR is seperated into two sections: Part one, which includes crimes such as homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and etc; Part two which includes 21 other crimes. The UCR not only looks reports on these crimes but also status offenses as well, which consist of runaways and curfew violations, committed by juveniles. This report provides information on the age, sex, and race of the offender arrested for both Part 1 and Part 2. However, though the UCR contains this information, it also has its faults. For example, no federal crimes are reported, there is no victim data(age or sex), only the serious crime is reported because of the hierarchy rule, no co-offending data, uncompleted acts are put together with the completed ones, and lastly truancy and several other status offenses are not included.

Next, we have the Nation Incident-Based Reporting System, also known as NIBRS. The NIBRS, was created in an attempt to improve the UCR by the FBI;however,
There are two theory models to explain this relationship: the criminal propensity model and the criminal career model. The criminal propensity model, focuses on individual low self-control and how when criminals get older they commit less crimes but the number of offenders stays the same. With the criminal career model, it focuses on social factors plays a role on the offender. Unlike the criminal propensity model, the number of offenders declines but the crime rate stays high. From this model we get the habitual offender and the policy implication of