CRM/LAW C109 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: National Incident Based Reporting System, National Crime Victimization Survey, Uniform Crime Reports
16 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chapter 2: The Nature and Extent of Delinquency
I. Official records of delinquency: UCR
A. Information about delinquent behavior comes from FBI and published in Uniform
Crime Report (UCR)
1. UCR includes criminal acts reported and number of arrests made
2. Part I: most serious crimes such as murder, forcible rape, robbery,
aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, arson, gta
3. Part 2: age, race, and gender
B. Compiling the UCR
1. Report how many known offenses, how many crimes were cleared
a) Crime can be cleared by at least one person is arrested, charged,
and prosecuted or an element beyond police control (i.e. offender
leaves country)
2. Violent crimes more likely to be solved than property crimes bc police
devote more time to serious acts
3. Three methods to express crime
a) Number of crimes reported to police
b) Crime rate per 100,000 people
c) Changes in rate of crime and number of crimes over time
C. Is the UCR valid
1. Less than half of violent crimes and one third of property crimes are
reported
2. Some dont report because lack of confidence in police, victims without
property insurance feel it's useless, others fear reprisal
3. Most serious crime and greater loss are reported, people who are involved
in crime are less likely to report
4. Law enforcement agencies may make intentional or unintentional errors in
reporting (some have altered crime statistics to show less crime)
5. May define crimes loosely (i.e. attempted assault on woman as rape)
6. Hierarchy rule - only most serious crime reported in a multiple crime
committed case
7. A decline in crime may be a change in victim behavior not criminal
behavior
D. The National Incident Based Reporting System
1. NIBRS collects data on each reported crime incident
2. Requires police to provide at least a brief account of each incident and
arrest (incident, victim, offender info)
II. Self report surveys
A. To measure delinquency and youthful misconduct
