Crime Statistics
Crime Statistics The crime statistics focus on giving out specific detailed information to the public and the government of United States about all the crime taken place in a certain period of time. The crime related information for the statistics is collected and published by different federal government agencies such as FBI, the department of Justice, the National Institute of Justice, etc. The statistics include data about how much crime is there; when and where crime occurs; what type of crime mostly occurs; who is most often victimized; how many criminals get arrested and punished. The published data is measured per 100,000 inhabitants on an area (Territo.2004). There are two crime measuring systems in the United States. The first is the Uniform Crime Report (UCR). This automated computer measurement system adds up all reported crimes from the police to the FBI, which is then published by the FBI. The other crime measurement system comes from National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). This survey run by Bureau of Justice Statistics, who interviews all household members, 12 years and up, in six-month intervals. The survey approach all crime suffered individuals and households, regardless if the crime was reported to the law enforcement. The survey also summarizes the reasons the victims give for not reporting the crimes (http://sociologyindex.com/measure_of_crime.htm). Both programs are similar because they cover the crime types such as rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft and vehicle theft. Besides the unlike data collection methods there are also major differences between the UCR and NCVS. The UCR relies on only reported crimes, coming from the police and the FBI. But since not every crime is reported to the officials by the victims, the statistics is somewhat incomplete. The NCVS on the other hand only collect data about crime incidents from victims first hand. But the survey cannot cover murder, since the victim cannot report it due to
References: Territo L, Halsted J.B., Bromley L. (2004). Crime and Justice in America: A Human Perspective. 6th edition, published by Prentice Hall. Retrieved from CTUO Course Bookshelf.
Sociologyindex (n.d.). MEASURE OF CRIME. Retrieved from http://sociologyindex.com/measure_of_crime.htm