Measuring Crime Victimization

Measuring Crime Victimization:

As the various kinds of crimes are significant reflections of how and why crime victimization takes place, the various sources of research and data on measuring crime victimization are crucial in the development and establishment of victimization programs. Generally, there are various programs that are administered by the relevant agencies to measure the nature, magnitude, and impact of crime in the country. While the programs are carried out for different purposes, they generate valuable information about the various aspects of the crime problem across the country. Notably, these methods of collecting crime data and crime reporting use distinctive techniques and focus on relatively different aspects of crime, which makes them important in crime reporting.

There are three major crime reporting sources i.e. The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), and Self Report Studies. The Uniform Crime Reports, developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are the best known and most widely used source for criminal statistics ("Measuring Crime," 1999). Through this method, crime data is collected and reported by various law enforcement agencies across the three levels of government in the country. While crime is reported when the police confirms it has occurred, the UCR method considers crime rate as the number of reported crimes by the total population time 100,000.

On the contrary, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) measure the extent of criminal behavior through focusing on the target of such behaviors i.e. The victims. In this case, the surveys reveal crime victimization rates by counting the victims. The third measure of crime reporting is Self Report Studies, which are developed to enable participants to reveal information regarding their violations of the law. This method is based on the assumption that people will precisely describe their illegal activities because of the anonymity of the respondent and the guarantee of confidentiality supported by academic credentials.

The most important source of crime reporting data to researchers is the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which is a recent development in crime reporting. In addition to being a recent development, the National Incident-Based Reporting System is an important source because it brings a change in reporting. The importance of this method is demonstrated by the fact that each crime incident will be reported rather than the summaries provided by the Uniform Crime Reports ("Chapter 6 - Measuring Crime," n.d.). This technique is also a significant source because it incorporates several individual elements regarding the incidents not included with UCR. Furthermore, National Incident-Based Reporting System includes more crimes than those provided for in the other crime reporting methods.

With regards to the most accurate method of collecting crime data, surveys have proved to be the most beneficial to researchers, especially in relation to its advantages. In addition to presenting alternative crime measurement method, surveys are accurate because of the various advantages they contain over other crime collection methods. The advantages of surveys that increase their accuracy include the fact that they collect information not reported to police and measure crimes that have not been officially recorded by police. Moreover, surveys provide data on individual units of evaluation and have high reliability when carried out properly.