Disscussion Board Essay Example
Two major setbacks of the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) are the hierarchy rule and the dark figure of crime. * Please explain these 2 terms, and clearly articulate how the first setback (the hierarchy rule) was tackled by the new National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). * How can the government encourage crime victims to report crimes to police?
The first major setback of the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is the hierarchy rule, and it states that only the most serious offense is reported (UCLA, 2012). As an example if someone robs several people and kills one then only the homicide is reported. There are a few exceptions to the hierarchy rule which include justifiable homicide, arson, and motor vehicle theft (Justice, 2004). With the hierarchy rule even though not all of the crimes are reported the most serious of offenses are reported which is definitely a good thing. Without the hierarchy rule in the beginning and everything got reported there would be a lot of chaos in the system, because thinking about it there would have been tons of paperwork for everyone to do and nothing would every really get done. In today’s day and age we have computers to help get everything done so with the NIBRS system it’s easier to report on all crimes.
The second thing is the dark figure of crime which is the undetected or unreported crimes (Theoretical Criminology, 2011). Most people don’t want to report crimes because they feel embarrassed, are afraid no one will believe them, and or they are just afraid to report it. The most common reason for the existence of dark figure is non-reporting of crimes (Theoretical Criminology, 2011). It is estimated that the dark figure of crimes makes 66% of all committed crimes (Theoretical Criminology, 2011). Now the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) was designed to eliminate the hierarchy rule as best as possible. NIBRS reports on all crimes and classifies them in different groups: Group A which has 22 offenses
The first major setback of the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is the hierarchy rule, and it states that only the most serious offense is reported (UCLA, 2012). As an example if someone robs several people and kills one then only the homicide is reported. There are a few exceptions to the hierarchy rule which include justifiable homicide, arson, and motor vehicle theft (Justice, 2004). With the hierarchy rule even though not all of the crimes are reported the most serious of offenses are reported which is definitely a good thing. Without the hierarchy rule in the beginning and everything got reported there would be a lot of chaos in the system, because thinking about it there would have been tons of paperwork for everyone to do and nothing would every really get done. In today’s day and age we have computers to help get everything done so with the NIBRS system it’s easier to report on all crimes.
The second thing is the dark figure of crime which is the undetected or unreported crimes (Theoretical Criminology, 2011). Most people don’t want to report crimes because they feel embarrassed, are afraid no one will believe them, and or they are just afraid to report it. The most common reason for the existence of dark figure is non-reporting of crimes (Theoretical Criminology, 2011). It is estimated that the dark figure of crimes makes 66% of all committed crimes (Theoretical Criminology, 2011). Now the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) was designed to eliminate the hierarchy rule as best as possible. NIBRS reports on all crimes and classifies them in different groups: Group A which has 22 offenses