Primary Crime Data Sources in the US

Primary Crime Data Sources in the US

Introduction

The effective management and control of crime is a basic objective of crime controlling entities. Recognizing this need of criminal statistics and databases, the IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) formed an entity, in 1920s, called the Committee on Uniform Crime Records in order to develop a system of statistic that would provide uniform data to police across the US. The committee analyzed various crimes, with offences as a suitable measure, based on pervasiveness I geographical territories, frequency of occurrence, seriousness of crime and the possibility of being reported. After evaluating the recordkeeping practices and analyzing the criminal codes, the committee presented a framework for reporting crime, which became the basis of the UCR system in 1929 (Block & Block, 1994).

With years, the evolution took place in UCR usage and various law enforcement authorities improved its capability to include information regarding various crimes. Afterwards, in 1970s, these law enforcement authorities called for the evaluation of the system for improving the system further in order to meet the growing needs in the 21st century. This resulted in to the National Incident-Based Reporting System. Today, there are two main systems of crime reporting used in the US; the UCR (Uniform Crime Reports) and the NIBRS (National Incident-Based Reporting System).

The Two Primary Crime Data Sources in the US

The following discussion will cortically analyze and contrast these two major sources of crime data in the United States.

The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)

The UCR system is a national, collaborated, statistical effort of above 17,000 state, county and city law enforcing entities. These agencies voluntarily report data to the program when any crime is registered at their offices. According to statistics of the Bureau of Census year 2002, around 94% from total number of agencies were active in the UCR Program. The coverage in Metropolitan Statistical areas in the United States amounted to over 94% and above 89 percent in cities outside metropolitan areas, and nearly 90 percent in rural areas.

The FBI has managed the UCR program, since 1930, and provided periodic reporting on type and nature of crimes in different parts of the United States. The main objective of UCR program is to provide a reliable data and statistics of crime to various law enforcing agencies to assist them in management, operation and administration. It is also considered as one the leading social indicator in the United States. The American citizens also use the UCR system to get information on level of crime, as well as, learn about the media, municipal planners, legislators, sociologists and criminologists. Similarly, the students of criminology also use the data base for the educational purposes (MacDowall & Loftin, 1992).

The UCR system categorizes criminal offences into 2 groups; Part 1 and part 2 crimes. Active agencies present information on the number of Part I offenses (Crime Index) each month, which are identified to law enforcing agencies. Other reported offences include those cleared by exceptional means or ...