National Incident-Based Reporting System

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What are the two main methods by which we measure crime? How is this information captured?

• Uniform Crime Reports
• the National Incident-Based Reporting System

Two major sources of crime statistics commonly used in the United States.
The UCR is the FBI’s widely used system for recording crimes and making policy decisions.
Crime data from NIBRS law enforcement agencies that represent about 20 percent of the total U.S. population.

UCR - Uniform Crime Reports- collected by FBI, involves collection by more than 17,000 police departments regarding, expressed in different ways: Raw figures of number of crimes reported to police and arrest, crime rates per 100,000, changes in crime rates, clearance rates. less serious crimes and misdemeanors, …show more content…

All specific offenses are included in report. INCLUDES EVERYTHING (ATTEMPTED CRIMES ALSO) - INCHOATE OFFENSES TOO. INCLUDES 46 OFFENSES.
• Victimization Survey
• - UCR date cannot measure all criminal activity because not all crimes are reported to law enforcement.
• - Researchers interview household members in a nationally representative sample (42,000 households)
• - Data is collected regarding frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization by a variety of crimes, many of which may not have been reported to law enforcement.
• Advantage: Provides estimates of the total amount of annual crimes, not only those reported to police. Helps us understand why crimes are not reported and the criminal event influences (whether police will ever know it occurred)

• Problems: Over reporting due to victims ' misinterpretation of events. EX: A lost wallet may be reported as stolen
-Under reporting due to the embarrassment of reporting crime to interviewers, fear of getting in trouble, or forgetting an

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