Transcript Chapter Two

Chapter Two
Measurement of Crime and Its
Effects
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Official Reports
• Uniform Crime Reports
• National Incident-Based Reporting System
• National Crime Victimization Survey
• National Assessment Program
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Uniform Crime Reports
• 1930, Congress authorized attorney general to
gather crime information
• Administered by the F.B.I. which issues
assessments on the nature and type of crime
• Primary objective is to generate a set of reliable
criminal statistics for use in law enforcement
administration, operation, and management
• Nationwide report including over 1600 cities,
counties, and state law enforcement agencies
• Voluntary participation
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• Seven “index” crimes
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Murder and manslaughter
Forcible rape
Robbery
Aggravated assault
Burglary
Larceny-theft
Motor vehicle theft
In 1979, Congress added Arson as an eighth index
crime
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• Problems with the UCR include:
– Voluntary participation by law enforcement agencies
– Only those incidents reported to police are included
– Generally provides only tabular summaries of crime
and does not provide crime analysts with more
meaningful information
– In an criminal incident including more than one crime,
only the most serious crime is reported
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National Incident-Based Reporting System
• Goal is to modernize crime reporting information
by collecting data presently maintained by law
enforcement records
• Collects data on each single incident and arrest
within forty-six crime categories
• In 1991, 269 agencies covering a population of
4.1 million persons participated
• In 1996, participation included 1,082 agencies
covering a population of 14.8 million persons
• Includes more information on incidents than
UCR
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National Crime Victimization Survey
• NCVS is a nationwide sample of interviews of citizens
regarding victimization
• Established to provide unreported data about crime, victims,
and offenders
• Attempts to correct the problems of non-reporting inherent in
the UCR
• Offenses include the frequency and nature of rape, robbery,
assault, household burglary, personal and household theft,
and motor vehicle theft
• Does not measure homicide or commercial crime
• Problems include relatively small sample size (66,000
households) and respondents underreporting or
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overreporting crimes
National Assessment Program
• Conducted by the National Institute of Justice
• Survey to determine the needs and problems of
state and local criminal justice agencies
• Not technically a measurement of crime
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Other Reports
• National Family Violence Surveys
• Other Sources of Data on Violence
• Other Types of Crime Research
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National Family Violence Surveys
• Two of the most comprehensive studies of family
violence
• Violence was defined as an act carried out with
the intention, or perceived intention, of causing
physical pain or injury to another person
• Violence was measured using the Conflict
Tactics Scale (CTS) which measures three
variables including:
– Use of rational discussion and agreement
– Use of verbal and nonverbal expressions of hostility
– Use of physical force or violence
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Other Sources of Data on Violence
• Clinical studies
– Carried out by practitioners in the field using samples
gathered from actual cases of family violence
– Small sample sizes require caution when drawing
conclusions
• Review of major research
• Using files from specialization units of law
enforcement agencies
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Other Types of Crime Research
• Economic crime has not received much attention
because the victims’ movement initially focused
on violent crime. However, due to the
tremendous toll on victims, this is changing and
the following economic crimes are receiving
more research attention.
– Property crime
– Fraud
– White-collar crime
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