Measures of Crime

Three ways to measure crime

1. Crime reported to the Police

• UCR Uniform Crime Report

• FBI

2. Survey of Victims

• NCVS National Crime Victimization Survey

• Bureau of Justice Statistics

3. Survey of Offenders

• Self Reports

• Several agencies

I. UCR Uniform Crime Report: Crime reported to the Police

Careful with the classification of the UCR as Official Statistics in the textbook: NCVS is just as "official".

Reading assignment on the www: FBI UCR FAQ: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucrquest.htm

Someone, somewhere, for some reason, believed that a crime might have been committed and reported it.

Question: How does underreporting happen?

• Who is interested in low numbers?

Question: How does overreporting happen?

•Who is interested in high numbers?

Political Manipulation Techniques:

1. Recording the crime

Example: The UCR handbook for the Police is designed to achieve the highest crime rate possible:

"If a number of persons are involved in a dispute or disturbance and a police investigation cannot establish aggressors from the victims, count the number of persons assaulted as the number of offenses"(UCR Police Handbook).

2. Change categories

A) Nixon Example

He wanted to demonstrate that crime decreased under his legislation.

Theft was simply listed for theft above $50 (Seidman & Couzens 1974).

B) Conjoin minor assaults with assaults. Number of violent crime goes up.

Categories for forcible rape were merged in the UCR. Now it includes "assaults or attempts to commit rape by force or threat of force" see: http://www.fbi.gov/publish.htm

3. Change motivations for reporting

A) No squad car will be detached for a crime report (New York City). People have to come to the station (Tallahassee).

B) Creating social awareness that certain crimes should be reported

• Magazine adds: report pirating software
• Neighborhood watch programs

4. Counseling

Rape crisis Hotline

5. Social Construction of Crime

• False memory syndrome: child abuse, rape
• Awareness groups and events.

Homework: check the UCS on the www. Links are provided on our updated homepage.

II. National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS): Survey of Victims

What allows statistics of both agencies (FBI and Bureau of Justice Statistics) to be compared?

Check the FBI's own account how both compare on the WWW at:

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/ntmc.txt

Summary at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cv94.htm

Check for trends in the 1996 study : http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cv96.htm

Rough Comparison of the UCR and NCVS

Example of an exam question:

What allows statistics of the National Crime Survey (NCS) to be compared to the statistics in Uniform Crime Reports (UCR).

a) the exact measurement of crime in the UCR

b) the exact measurement of crime in the NCS

c) the fact that the categories for crimes sampled in both studies are largely identical

d) the fact that UCR reflects crime reported to the police

e) the fact that NCS reflects crime reported by victims

Third Party Self Report Studies

• Can be very similar to the National Crime Victimization Survey, asking if someone was a victim of crime.
• Can be different in asking if the respondent committed a crime.
• Studies conducted by university professors, sponsored by a variety of agencies.
• More specific focus on characteristics or demographics of the respondents. E.g. ordinary citizens, middle class, lower class, prison inmates, minorities.

What can be different in a Third Party Self Report Study as compared to the National Crime Victimization Survey?

• The focus might lie on interviewing offenders.

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Disclaimer: The documents linked to other sources on the WWW, others than http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/Schneider2/ and its subdirectories, do not necessarily express the views of Texas Tech University or Dr. Andreas Schneider. @Copyright 2006 Andreas Schneider