The Measurement of Crime: Official Crime Data

1. The Measurement of Crime: Official Crime Data UCR Victimization surveys

2. Official Crime Data • Comes from a number of sources • Police reports of offenses and arrests • Charges filed by prosecutors • Imprisonment data • Prison releases

3. Police Statistics on Crime • Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) • Begun in 1930’s • Need for reliable, uniform crime statistics for the nation • The U.S. Department of Justice instituted the compilation (by FBI) and publication

4. UCR • FBI receives data from more than 17,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies (voluntarily reporting) • For the most part, agencies submit monthly crime reports, using uniform offense definitions, to a centralized repository within their state. The state UCR Program then forwards the data to the FBI's national UCR Program. • Coverage: 90% in cities, 87% in rural areas

5. Three annual publications • Crime in the United States • Hate Crime Statistics • Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted

6. Data collection • Monthly basis • FBI provides report forms, UCR Reporting Handbook (1984), and self-addressed envelops • UCR Reporting Handbook – general rules for the classification and scoring of criminal offences • Definitions are important for standardization of reporting practices

7. UCR: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm

8. UCR

10. Index Crimes (“Part I”) Murder Forcible rape Robbery Aggravated assault Burglary Larceny-theft Motor vehicle theft Arson (1979) Non-Index Crimes (“Part II”) Simple assault Forgery Fraud Embezzlement Buying, receiving, and possessing stolen property Carrying/possessing weapons Prostitution Sex offences Drug use violations Gambling Offense against family/children Structure of UCR

11. Hierarchy Rule • There is a significance to the order in which the Part I offenses are presented, with criminal homicide being the highest in the hierarchy and arson being the lowest. The Part I offenses are as follows: • 1. Criminal Homicide • a. Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter • b. Manslaughter by Negligence • 2. Forcible Rape • a. Rape by Force • b. Attempts to Commit Forcible Rape

12. Robbery • a. Firearm • b. Knife or Cutting Instrument • c. Other Dangerous Weapon • d. Strong-arm—Hands, Fists, Feet, etc. • Aggravated Assault • a. Firearm • b. Knife or Cutting Instrument • c. Other Dangerous Weapon • d. Hands, Fists, Feet, etc.—Aggravated Injury • Burglary • a. Forcible Entry • b. Unlawful Entry—No Force • c. Attempted Forcible Entry

13. Hierarchy Rule • Motor Vehicle Theft • a. Autos • b. Trucks and Buses • c. Other Vehicles

14. Crime Clock 2006 Every 23.1 seconds One Violent Crime Every 32.6 minutes One Murder Every 5.6 minutes One Forcible Rape Every 1.3 minutes One Robbery Every 36.9 seconds One Aggravated Assault Every 3.1 seconds One Property Crime Every 14.7 seconds One Burglary Every 4.5 seconds One Larceny-theft Every 25.5 seconds One Motor Vehicle Theft

15. Caution!... • This is the most aggregate representation of UCR data, it conveys the annual reported crime experience by showing a relative frequency of occurrence of Part I offenses. • It should not be taken to imply a regularity in the commission of crime. The Crime Clock represents the annual ratio of crime to fixed time intervals

16. UCR tabulates • The number of offenses • National Volume, Trends, and Rates • The offense rate per 100,000 population • The UCR Program examines data in increments of 2, 5, and 10 years to formulate trend information (in percentage change)

17. Example

18. UCR tabulates • The offense rate by region (Northeast, Midwest, South, and West) • The UCR Program aggregates crime data into three community types: Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), cities outside metropolitan statistical areas, and nonmetropolitan counties • The UCR Program collects weapon data for murder, robbery, and aggravated assault offenses • An examination of these data indicated that most violent crime (30.7 percent) involved the use of personal weapons, such as hands, fists, feet, etc. Firearms were used in 26.4 percent and knives or cutting instruments were used in 15.5 percent of violent crime

19. UCR tabulates • The nature of the offense (age, gender, race of offenders and victims) • The arrest (or clearance) rates of offenses

20. Clearance • Crimes are cleared in two ways: • 1. When at least one person is arrested, charged, and turned over to the court for prosecution • 2. When some element beyond police control precludes the physical arrest of an offender (for example, the offender leaves the country)

21. Clearance (2005)

22. UCR provides data • Crime rates for individuals states, cities, and towns of varying size • Violent Crime Rate =(Number of Violent Crimes*100,000)/population

23. Murder: Definition • The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program defines murder and nonnegligent manslaughter as the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another. • The classification of this offense is based solely on police investigation as opposed to the determination of a court, medical examiner, coroner, jury, or other judicial body • The UCR Program does not include: suicide, or accident; justifiable homicides; and attempts to murder or assaults to murder, which are scored as aggravated assaults

24. Ambiguity with murder • A victim of aggravated assault dies • Follow-up investigation are important for correcting multiple monthly reports • Less reliable agencies fail to record subsequent death of the victim as murder

25. Killings that don’t count • Corporate killings (rarely perceive as homicide or prosecuted as such) • Unsafe working conditions, unsafe pharmaceutical products, unfit food products or illegal emissions into the environment

26. Killings that don’t count • Death by driving is not treated as “real “ homicide (because does not fit the definition) • According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 16,694 people died in alcohol-related crashes in 2004, down 2.4 percent from 17,105 in 2003

27. Killings that don’t count • Deaths in custody and During the Course of Arrests • Issue of deaths in prison or police custody or at the hands of police in the course of arrests • When police or prison officers cause the deaths of those they encounter (suspects or convicted criminals), these deaths are often not viewed as unlawful

28. Killings that don’t count • Hidden Bodies (no corpse = no homicide) • Missing Persons: 85% to 90% of the 876,213 persons reported missing to America’s law enforcement agencies in 2000 were juveniles (persons under 18 years of age) • Establishing Mode of Death: due to complexities in establishing cause of death • In a case of a discovered body, it is not always possible to determine whether the death was a result of foul play

29. Establishing Mode of Death • One of key purposes of a medical-legal autopsy is to establish the mode of death • Four modes of deaths are possible: • Natural • Accidental • Suicide • Homicide

30. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome • Distinguishing SIDS from homicide can be difficult • SIDS is characterized by the death of seemingly healthy babies where the cause of death cannot be identified • It has been estimated that around 20% of SIDS cases are in fact suspicious infant deaths

31. Assessment of UCR data • Unknown, probably massive amount of crime that goes unreported to the police (“dark figure” of crime) • Participation in the UCR is voluntary, not all police departments send crime reports to the FBI • UCR does not include federal crimes (blackmail), white collar crimes

32. Assessment of UCR data • In any single event, the most serious crime is reported (”hierarchy rule”) for statistical purposes • The UCR’s Crime Index Total misrepresents the crime rate at any given year • Decrease in the number of larcenies cancels out an identical increase in the number of homicides (constant crime rate) • Auto theft, a less serious crime, has a very high reportability (artificially inflates the crime index rate)

34. Assessment of UCR data • Currently, larceny-theft makes up 59.4 percent of reported crime, and thus the sheer volume of those offenses overshadow more serious but less frequently committed offenses

35. Unweighted Index • Murder has the same weight as a auto theft • Imagine two cities each with a crime rate of 100 per 100, 000 population. In city A, 100 murders were recorded whereas in city B, 100 joyrides were recorded. • The existence of the “Crime Index” may cause police agencies to concentrate on these crimes at the expense of other crimes. • Most crimes that are committed are not index offenses (Hagan, 2004)

36. Assessment of UCR data • UCR data are more valid indicators of the behavior of the police than of offenders (Barkan, 1999) • Decision whether to record • Do not believe the victim’s account (Block, 1990) • May be busy to do the paperwork to record it (especially if the crime is not serious) • If there is no record = there is no crime

37. Discontinuing the use of the Crime Index • In June 2004, the CJIS APB approved discontinuing the use of the Crime Index in the UCR Program and its publications and directed the FBI publish a violent crime total and a property crime total until a more viable index is developed

38. Assessment of UCR data • Police departments have a dilemma (more crime=more resources, less crime=good work) • Poor, nonwhite males are more likely to be arrested • Public is more likely to report • Research suggests that police personnel and funds are concentrated in nonwhite poor neighborhoods (more arrests in these areas) • Arrest data gives a distorted picture of the “typical offender”

39. Assessment of UCR data • Official number of crimes might change artificially (citizens become more or less likely to report offenses committed against them) • Example: increased number of reported rapes in the last two decades partly reflect growing awareness by women and police

40. Assessment of UCR data • Police in various communities have different understanding and definitions of crimes • One study found that Los Angeles police recorded any attempted or completed sexual assault as rape, while Boston police recorded a sexual assault as a rape only if it involved completed sexual intercourse (Chappell, 1980) • Result: Boston’s official rape rate was much lower than that for Los Angeles

41. Methodology of Rape (2005) • The UCR Program counts one offense for each female victim of a forcible rape, attempted forcible rape, or assault with intent to rape, regardless of the victim’s age • Sexual attacks on males are counted as aggravated assaults or sex offenses, depending on the circumstances and the extent of any injuries

42. Redesigned UCR • the National Incident-Based Reporting System, or NIBRS • The NIBRS collects data on each single incident and arrest within 22 crime categories • For each offense known to police within these categories: incident, victim, property, offender, and arrestee information are gathered when available • Use of alcohol immediately before the offense

43. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) • The NCVS is under the auspices of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)

44. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) • Begun in early 1970’s to avoid the police reporting problems and bias • Provide more detailed information than UCR • Context of crime such time of day and physical setting in which it occurs • Characteristics of crime victims (gender, race, income, age, extent of injury, and relationship with their offenders) • Characteristics of the offenders • Whether victimization has been reported to the police

45. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) • Every six months the Census Bureau interviews about 110,000 residents age 12 and older • 50,000 randomly selected households • Aggravated and simple assault, rape and sexual assault, robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft • No homicide, arson, commercial crimes, white collar crimes, gambling • Crimes are described to respondents

46. NCVS provides data • Only 39% percent of all NCVS crimes were reported to the police • The reasons most often given by victims include believing that “the police can do nothing about it”, or that it was a “private matter” , or they did not want “ to get involved” • Victims seem to report to the police only crimes that involve considerable loss or injury

48. Forcible rape • UCR: underreported crime • NCVS: around 30% of victims do not report rape to the police

49. In the NCVS, rape is defined as: • “Forced sexual intercourse including both psychological coercion as well as physical force. Forced sexual intercourse means vaginal, anal, or oral penetration by the offender(s). This category also includes incidents where the penetration is from a foreign object such as a bottle. Includes attempted rapes, male as well as female victims, and both heterosexual and homosexual rape. Attempted rape includes verbal threats of rape” (U.S. BJS 1997)

50. Victimization data