Chapter Two Measurement of Crime and Its Effects

Victimology: Legal, Psychological, and Social Perspectives, 3 rd ed. Wallace and Roberson © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 2 Official Reports Uniform Crime Reports National Incident-Based Reporting System National Crime Victimization Survey National Assessment Program

Victimology: Legal, Psychological, and Social Perspectives, 3 rd ed. Wallace and Roberson © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 3 Uniform Crime Reports 1930, Congress authorized attorney general to gather crime information Administered by the F.B.I. which issues assessments on the nature and type of crime Primary objective is to generate a set of reliable criminal statistics for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management Nationwide report including over 1600 cities, counties, and state law enforcement agencies Voluntary participation

Victimology: Legal, Psychological, and Social Perspectives, 3 rd ed. Wallace and Roberson © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 4 Seven “index” crimes Murder and manslaughter Forcible rape Robbery Aggravated assault Burglary Larceny-theft Motor vehicle theft In 1979, Congress added Arson as an eighth index crime

Victimology: Legal, Psychological, and Social Perspectives, 3 rd ed. Wallace and Roberson © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 5 Problems with the UCR include: Voluntary participation by law enforcement agencies Only those incidents reported to police are included Generally provides only tabular summaries of crime and does not provide crime analysts with more meaningful information In an criminal incident including more than one crime, only the most serious crime is reported

Victimology: Legal, Psychological, and Social Perspectives, 3 rd ed. Wallace and Roberson © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 6 National Incident-Based Reporting System Goal is to modernize crime reporting information by collecting data presently maintained by law enforcement records Collects data on each single incident and arrest within forty-six crime categories In 1991, 269 agencies covering a population of 4.1 million persons participated In 1996, participation included 1,082 agencies covering a population of 14.8 million persons Includes more information on incidents than UCR

Victimology: Legal, Psychological, and Social Perspectives, 3 rd ed. Wallace and Roberson © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 7 National Crime Victimization Survey NCVS is a nationwide sample of interviews of citizens regarding victimization Established to provide unreported data about crime, victims, and offenders Attempts to correct the problems of non-reporting inherent in the UCR Offenses include the frequency and nature of rape, robbery, assault, household burglary, personal and household theft, and motor vehicle theft Does not measure homicide or commercial crime Problems include relatively small sample size (66,000 households) and respondents underreporting or overreporting crimes

Victimology: Legal, Psychological, and Social Perspectives, 3 rd ed. Wallace and Roberson © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 8 National Assessment Program Conducted by the National Institute of Justice Survey to determine the needs and problems of state and local criminal justice agencies Not technically a measurement of crime

Victimology: Legal, Psychological, and Social Perspectives, 3 rd ed. Wallace and Roberson © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 9 Other Reports National Family Violence Surveys Other Sources of Data on Violence Other Types of Crime Research

Victimology: Legal, Psychological, and Social Perspectives, 3 rd ed. Wallace and Roberson © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 10 National Family Violence Surveys Two of the most comprehensive studies of family violence Violence was defined as an act carried out with the intention, or perceived intention, of causing physical pain or injury to another person Violence was measured using the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) which measures three variables including: Use of rational discussion and agreement Use of verbal and nonverbal expressions of hostility Use of physical force or violence

Victimology: Legal, Psychological, and Social Perspectives, 3 rd ed. Wallace and Roberson © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 11 Other Sources of Data on Violence Clinical studies Carried out by practitioners in the field using samples gathered from actual cases of family violence Small sample sizes require caution when drawing conclusions Review of major research Using files from specialization units of law enforcement agencies

Victimology: Legal, Psychological, and Social Perspectives, 3 rd ed. Wallace and Roberson © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. 12 Other Types of Crime Research Economic crime has not received much attention because the victims’ movement initially focused on violent crime. However, due to the tremendous toll on victims, this is changing and the following economic crimes are receiving more research attention. Property crime Fraud White-collar crime