Criminal Justice 9 10 14 Crime Statistics 3 Sources of Information about Crime FBI crime data 1 Uniform Crime Report URC 2 National Crime Victimization Survey NCVS 3 Self Report Surveys SRS Uniform Crime Reports URC police departments Crime statistic are collected by branches of the criminal justice system Crime statistics are compiled and shared by the FBI Data are accumulated nationally as police officers report calls crimes and arrests etc Strengths of UCR Shows trends and patterns of crime over time Provides crime data at different levels Weaknesses of URC Recording practices are inconsistent Police departments are inconsistent in how they document crime discretion in arrests reports and in what to record Multiple offenses are not recorded only the most serious crime Different police departments and police officers may define a type of crime differently Not all jurisdiction report crime statistics to the FBI Rural small police departments ect Sending in data is completely voluntary Not all crimes are reported to the police BIGGEST WEAKNESS Dark Figure of Crime refers to those crimes that go unreported to officials Lowest reported crime to the police is rape Aggravated assault is the second lowest crime reported to the police NIBRS new URC being created by the FBI taking over due to more detailed reports captured in NIBRS National Crime Victimization Survey Provides estimates of the victimization experiences for the entire U S population Designed to show the amount of criminal victimization occurring in the U S even when such victimization does not come to the attention of the police NCVS Strengths Gets at the Dark Figure of Crime and why crimes go unreported Provides information on the victims of crime attitudes cost of crime injuries weapon use beliefs about crime and punishment Based on probability sampling random and representative Unique to the NCVS Use a probability sampling design to ensure that the households selected to complete the survey represent the results of the entire population NCVS Weaknesses High costs The date are dependent on the recall of the respondents Respondents are not likely to report failed attempts URC does People may define crime differently than the criminal justice officials Respondents often fail to report certain types of crime and or crimes that involve acquaintances or relatives of the victim In collecting information only one person per household is interviewed Have to be at least 12 years old to answer the interview questions Major variation noted in reporting by respondent s race sex age income and education Self Report Surveys SRS Ask people to state if and how often they have engaged in acts that could be defined as criminal or delinquent Strengths Gets at the Dark Figure of Crime Provides detailed demographic information on offenders school attendance family situation conventional activities and other individualized and theoretical information A source of information on attitudes and beliefs of those who engage in criminal activity Weaknesses Lack of standard reporting format vague measures of criminal involvement are often used never often and sometimes Asks only about trivial offenses general delinquency status offenses etc Dependent on the recall of the respondents Dependent on the willingness of respondents to answer truthfully Lack of validity tendency to falsify info or exaggerate involvement in the crime
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