Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
Official records from law enforcement agencies and given to the FBI. These records include the number of crimes reported to police, and arrests reported as raw numbers; Crime rates per 100,000 people are computed; and changes in rate of crime over time ar
Part I Crimes
Murder and non negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, arson, and motor vehicle theft.
Part II Crimes
Sex crimes, drug trafficking, and vandalism.
Main Areas of Concern of the UCR
Reporting practices (40% of crimes are not reported); Law enforcement practices (police officials alter reported crimes to improve their department's public image); and Methodological problems - validity (no federal crimes are reported, reports are volunt
Hierarchy Rule
In a multiple-offense incident, only the most serious crime is counted.
(1) Each act is listed as a single offense for some crimes but not for others. (If a man robbed six people in a bar, the offense is listed as one robbery; but if he assaulted or murde
National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
1982 - a five-year redesign effort was undertaken to provide more comprehensive and detailed crime statistics. The new program requires local police agencies to provide at least a brief account of each incident and arrest, including the incident, victim,
NIBRS Requirements
Law enforcement authorities provide information to the FBI on each criminal incident involving one or more of 46 specific offenses, including the 8 Part I crimes, that occur in their jurisdiction; arrest information on the 46 offenses plus 11 lesser offen
Hopes of the NIBRS
More than 20 states have implemented their NIBRS program, and 12 others are in the process of finalizing their data. The NIBRS should bring about greater uniformity in cross-jurisdictional reporting and improve the accuracy or official crime data.
Sampling
Included in surveys, which refers to the process of selecting for study a limited number of subjects who are representative of entire groups sharing similar characteristics, called the population. (Prison inmates)
Cross-Sectional Survey
In some circumstances, criminologists may want the survey to be representative of all members of society. Cross-sectional surveys are a usual and cost-effective technique for measuring the characteristics of large numbers of people.
(1) Questions and meth
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
Because more than half of all victims do not report their experiences to the police, the UCR cannot measure all the annual criminal activity. To address the non reporting issue, the federal government's Bureau of Justice Statistics sponsors the Nation Cri
How the NCVS is Conducted
U.S. Census Bureau personnel interview household members in a nationally represented sample of approximately 38,000 households. People are interviewed twice a year, so that approximately 136,000 interviews of persons age 12 or older are conducted annually
NCVS: Advantages and Problems
The greatest advantage of the NCVS over official data sources such as the UCR is that it can estimate the total amount of annual crimes and not only those that are reported to police.
As a result, the NCVS data provides a more complete picture of the nati
Methodological problems of the NCVS
- Over reporting due to victims' misinterpretation of events. A lost wallet may be reported as stolen, or an open door may be viewed as a burglary attempt.
- Under reporting due to the embarrassment of reporting crime to interviewers, fear of getting in t
Future of the NCVS
Challenging: A recent analysis conducted by the National Research Council found that its effectiveness has been undermined by budget limitations.
Monitoring the Future (MTF)
A national survey conducted by researchers at ISR that involves more than 2,500 high school seniors. The MTF is considered the national standard to measure substance abuse trends among American teens.
The "missing cases" phenomenon
- If 90 percent of a school population voluntarily participates in a self- report study, the absent 10% can be most of the high-rate offenders.
- Self-reports may measure only non serious, occasional delinquents because the more serious criminals are inst
Cohort Research
Observation of a group of people who share a like characteristic over time.
Retrospective Cohort Study
Because it is extremely difficult, expensive, and time-consuming to follow a cohort over time, another approach is to take an intact cohort from the past and collect data from their educational, family, police, and hospital records. This format is known a
Experimental Research
Controlled experiments that collect data on the causes of crime. They are extremely difficult and expensive. (Quasi-experimental design is a better method).
How to Conduct Experimental Research
Criminologists manipulate or intervene in the lives of their subjects to see the outcome or the effect of the intervention. True experiments usually have three elements:
(1) random selection of subjects
(2) a control or comparison group
(3) an experimenta
Meta-Analysis
Involves gathering data from a number of previous studies. Compatible information and data are extracted and pooled together. When analyzed, the grouped data from several different studies provide a more powerful and valid indicator of relationships than
Systematic Review
Involves collecting the findings from previously conducted scientific studies that address a particular problem, appraising and synthesizing the evidence, and using the collective evidence to address a particular scientific question.
Data Mining
Uses multiple advanced computational methods, including artificial intelligence to analyze large data sets usually involving one or more data sources. The goal is to identify significant and recognizable patterns, trends, and relationships that are not ea
Crime Mapping
Criminologists create graphic representations of the spatial geography of crime. Computerized crime maps allow criminologists to analyze and correlate a wide array of data to create immediate, detailed visuals of crime patterns.
More complex maps can be u
Hot Spots of Crime
Certain neighborhoods in a city have significantly higher crime rates than others.
Future of Crime
Technological developments such as e-commerce on the Internet have created new classes of crime that are not recorded by any of the traditional methods of crime measurement. It's possible that some crimes such as fraud, larceny, prostitution, obscenity, v
Ecology of Crime
- Most reported crimes occur during the warm summer months of July and August. (Teenagers are out of school and more time to do stupid things).
- Murders and robberies frequently occur in December and January.
- Crime rates also may be higher on the first
Temperature and Crime
Some research shows that a rising temperature will cause some crimes to continually increase (domestic assault), while others (rape) will decline after temperatures rise to an extremely high level.
Regional Differences and Crime
Large urban areas have by far the highest violence rates; rural areas have the lowest per capita crime rates. Exceptions to this trend are low population resort areas with large transient or seasonal populations.
Use of Firearms
- About two-thirds of all murders and 40% of robberies involve firearms. Most are handguns. (UCR)
- International criminologists Franklin Zimring and Gordon Hawkins believe the proliferation of handguns and the high rate of lethal violence they cause is t
Age and Crime
Young people create more crime (ages 16-25). They eventually grow out of it in adulthood.
Gender and Crime
Male arrest rates are still considerably higher than female rates (males account for 80% of violent crimes), however female arrest rates seem to be increasing at a faster pace. It is possible they will eventually converge.
Race and Crime
Official crime data indicate that minority group members are involved in a disproportionate share of criminal activity.
Racial Threat Hypothesis
As the percentage of minorities in the population increases, so does the amount of social control that police direct at minority groups.
Cultural Bias
Some criminologists view black crime as a function of socialization in a society where the black family was torn apart and black culture destroyed in such a way that recovery has proven impossible.
Structural Bias
Economic and social disparity; Family dissolution; Is convergence possible?
Chronic Offenders/Criminal Careers
(Marvin Wolfgang, Robert Figlio, and Thornsten Sellin) Chronic offenders are involved in significant amounts of delinquent behavior and tend later to become adult criminals. Unlike most offenders, they do not age out of crime.