Major Crime Reporting Programs

The two primary data sources discuss in this abstract will be the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). These data sources are reporting mechanism that tracks criminal activities in the United States and foreign countries. To articulate why crime exists and the extent of a crime, criminologists use records that are collected, compiled, and analyzed by government agencies such as the federal government’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (Siegel, Larry J., 2006, p 31). The official data is used to focus on the social forces that affect crime in regards to the relationship between crime and poverty, criminologist uses the data which provides

Defining the crime problem is a vital step in controlling crime. Crime is undoubtedly a significant and pricey societal problem but we cannot target the problem without first defining it. There is no one identical solution to crime, instead it is based on a piece by piece basis. Strategies to target crimes need to target larger geographical areas, sometimes entire states. In addition, for a strategy to be successful in controlling a crime it cannot be too vague or extremely specific to an index crime. An example of a crime a law should target is: drug sales in a problem neighborhood or rapes at a city park. –Chapter 1 Page

Police departments and city officials are in a constant battle to display to the public a declining crime index. Some agencies are under public pressure to control crime and take part in scrupulous activities to recode crimes to show a declining crime rate. Agencies can misreport or not report crime at all to create an illusion of crime reduction.

Volume is a fundamental marker of the recurrence of known criminal movement. In dissecting offense information, the client ought to know that a UCR volume pointer does not speak to the genuine number of wrongdoings conferred; rather, it speaks to the quantity of reported offenses (Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics, 2016). Rates are markers of reported wrongdoing action institutionalized by populace. They are more refined pointers for similar purposes than are volume figures. The three types of crime rates reported are offense rates, arrest rates, and clearance rates. An offense rate, or wrongdoing rate, characterized as the quantity of offenses per 100,000 populaces, is inferred by first isolating a locale 's populace by 100,000 and after that partitioning the quantity of offenses by the subsequent figure. Wrongdoing or capture rates/ arrest rates are gotten from law implementation organizations for which 12 months of complete offense or capture information have been submitted (Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics, 2016). Law implementation worker rates are communicated as the quantity of representatives per 1,000 occupants. Clearance rates varies adroitly from a wrongdoing or capture rate in that both the numerator and denominator constitute the same unit of number (Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics, 2016). A clearance rate is, subsequently, proportionate

In this way, a more complete understanding of differences in crime patterns is

Throughout chapter 2, the main focus was types of crime and how they are reported/kept track of. In order to keep track of crime rates, Uniform Crime Reports (UCRS) and National Crime Victimization Surveys are used. Both of them have their positives and negatives. Uniform Crime Reports for instance, are beneficial because it keeps track of major crimes that have happened. It tracks the offenses such as Murder, Rape, Robbery, Assault, Burglary, Larson, and Auto Theft. Since murder is hard to get away with, it has a very accurate number when showing the statistics for that crime. On the other hand, half the crimes that happen go unreported like rape, theft, and assault. That is where the National Crime Victimization Surveys come in handy. The

When looking at the Problem-Oriented Policing (POP) website we see that it provides information to law enforcement departments around the country giving them information on how to deal with a significant amount of community problems (Problem-Oriented Policing, 2017). The website of POP shows in details community issues such as vandalism, street prostitution, and domestic violence for law enforcement departments to gain ideas how they can be addressed. There have been large numbers of police departments that have taken advantage of the enormous amount of resources provided to them by the POP two such departments the Oakland Police Department in Los Angeles, and the other being Lindgate Police Department in Nevada (Calgues, 2015).

There are two programs that measure the magnitude, nature, and impact of crime in the nation. One of them is the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR). The UCR was originally started with only reporting seven major offenses. Which were: murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny (theft) and motor vehicle theft. Later on it mandated for an arson to be added therefore making it the eight we have now. The UCR program uses data collected from law enforcement received every month to come up with its report. Along with the numbers for trends and counts for crime. The report has much more information as well. Such as who was arrested, their age, gender, and race.

The Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) is a nationwide, involving systems with thousands of statistical information by city, county, and state law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention. Not only is this program supported by local law enforcement agencies, but also by Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Its primary objective is to generate a reliable set of criminal statistics for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management. It gathers and draws its information from a category of crime index and rate of crime. These include the violent crimes of "murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, and the property crimes

One specific program is Rachel’s Challenge. This is a program started by the parents of a child killed in the Columbine school shooting. The program seeks to ensure a safe learning environment for students and to improve their learning. This program is taught in the schools located inside the city. While a worthwhile program, it is not seen as having any effect on crime by officers in the department. I believe this is a good publicity program, but I do not think it provides any real benefits to the department or community is the reduction of

Criminal Justice Data Collection The use of criminal justice data is to gain a better understanding and to improve the system. There are many ways that

The measurement of crime is an often overlooked fundamental subject in the field of criminal justice. There are various aspects to be considered when measuring crime; and almost as many questions. How is crime measured? What is the purpose of measuring crime? This paper explores these questions and more concerning crime measurement in the United States. Therefore, in this paper, the instruments used to measure crime are examined; major crime reporting programs and their purposes are discussed; crime, arrest, clearance, and recidivism rates are explained in detail; and what the crime and recidivism statistics tells humans about crime in America is also analyzed.

Each of the three types of information sources, scholarly articles, reports, and news items, have their strengths but also their weaknesses. Government reports and statistics are of great value for criminologists. Those reports include data that can be used by criminologists to research, examine and understand the phenomenon of crime. The Uniform Crime Reports collect official data on crime, which in turn provides the criminologists with a basis to conduct research and to establish theories that may in turn benefit the criminal justice system and society as a whole. For example, by studying local statistics, criminologists may discern environmental and socioeconomic factors that promote criminal behavior, which in turn is highly valuable

I enjoyed reading your posting, and I found it very informative in many aspects. Using crime data can be beneficial on several levels but like it has been stated several times it cannot always be 100% accurate as not all crimes are reported, it can however give information and lead way to areas that are problematic, so some type of preventative measures can be put into place to reduce crimes in certain areas.

Crime control helps keep order in cities. The crime statistics are taken in two major ways. collecting crime data are law enforcement reports and victimization statistical surveys (Boundless.com) In a big city where more crime happens more law enforcemt will be