UCR Uniform Crime Report
Uniform Crime Report
It is the belief of some people that the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system, through the Uniform Crime Reports collected by the FBI, provides a completely accurate indicator of crime in the United States. However, not everyone shares this opinion. There are two reasons why some people feel the UCR is not accurate as a representation of crime throughout the United States, and both of them are highly valid in nature. First, the UCR is a voluntary program (UCR, n.d.). This means that the areas that report to it can do so only if they want to. They do not need to report if they choose not to do so, and they may also not report every crime or every group of crimes. Second, there are only 18,000 law enforcement agencies reporting, and they can only report crimes they are notified about (UCR, n.d.). This could be problematic because there are many other agencies that do not report the crimes in their areas, and there are many people who are victims of crime and do not report it for various reasons.
Part of the problem with the UCR is that the FBI does not collect the data itself. Instead, it relies on the reporting organizations to send it data (Lynch & Addington, 2007). There are two major groups, or categories, or crimes that get reported. These are Part I offenses and Part II offenses. Within Part I there are two subcategories. These are violent crimes and property crimes. Rapes, murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults are classified as being violent crimes, while property crimes include burglary, arson, larceny-theft, and auto theft (Lynch &...
These Part I offenses are often called Index Crimes (UCR, n.d.). They are, typically, more likely to be reported to the police because they are more serious. Since police departments are more likely to report to the UCR than other agencies, this also means these serious crimes will be reported to the UCR and the number of them that occurs will be more accurately measured.
For Part II crimes, that strong reporting is not always the case. Drug offenses, simple assaults, vagrancy, vandalism, sex offenses, and similar crimes are all reported as Part II offenses (UCR, n.d.). Since these crimes are not considered to be as serious as issues like rape and murder, they are not always reported to police. That is especially true if the crime is committed by one criminal toward another, such as in the case of a drug deal that ends badly. The wronged party, who is also a criminal, is very likely not going to report the issue to police. Many victims of crime each year fail to report the incident to the police, for various reasons (Lynch & Addington, 2007). They may feel as though they were partly to blame, may be unsure of whether what took place was actually a crime, or may not trust the police. They may also avoid reporting of the crime because they do not see the value in reporting it, or they may fear retaliation if they alert authorities.
When the police are not alerted to a crime, they cannot investigate it. They also cannot report it, so it will not appear as part of the UCR. That is detrimental to the entire country, because it does not fairly indicate the level of crime that…
