1. Crime Victims: An Introduction to Victimology Seventh Edition
By Andrew Karmen
Chapter Three: Sources of Information About Crime Victims The UCR and the NCVS

2. Introduction The Big Picture When and where do crimes occur?
How often are weapons used?
Are victims usually strangers?
Do victims resist? Should they?
How often are victims injured?
What do victims lose?

3. Introduction How do we “put together” the Big Picture?
Official statistics gathered by government
Criminologists and victimologists gather their own data
Special interest groups gather crime data

4. Use and Abuse of Statistics
Statistics—meaningful numbers that reveal important information
Official statistics—compiled and published by government
Statistics—
Provide realistic assessments of a threat posed to individuals by criminal activity
Reveal patterns of criminal activity
Reflect trends in criminal activity

5. Use and Abuse of Statistics
Statistics –continued–
Reveal costs and losses by criminal activity
Project number of possible victims of a particular crime
Evaluate effectiveness of recovery efforts and prevention strategies
Identify statistical portraits (profiles) of a typical victim

6. Use and Abuse of Statistics
Interpretation of Statistics
Can be used to influence decision makers
Can be used to reduce fears
Can be used to support police administration
Can be used to show something is not working

7. Caution
However, be aware that statistics can be used to present one viewpoint, or be presented with a “spin.”

8. Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
FBI gathers data from local police departments and publishes an annual report of crime statistics called the Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
Part One Crimes Reported—8 Crimes
Violent Crime Data—(4) Murder, Forcible Rape, Robbery and Aggravated Assault
Property Crime Data—(4) Burglary, Larceny/Theft, Motor Vehicle Theft and Arson

9. Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
One method of illustrating the UCR data is the “Crime Clock,” which shows how many seconds or minutes apart a particular crime or criminal event occurs—see Figure 3.1, Page 55

10. Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
UCR reflects data for cities, counties and states
Reports include:
Number of complaints filed with police
Proportion of cases solved
Characteristics of offenders arrested

11. Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
Shortcomings of UCR Report
Underreporting a major problem
Focus is offenders, not victims (homicide exception)
Mixes attempted crimes and completed crimes
Robbery includes all targets, does not single out households, banks, stores, etc.
Uses ‘hierarchy rule,’ which reports only the most serious crime in a sequence of several criminal incidents

12. National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
Tracks 46 Group A Offenses—Greater Breakdown in data:
i.e. simple assault, vandalism, blackmail, fraud, statutory rape, kidnapping
Gathers data relating to commission of crime, victim information, value of theft, race/ethnicity
Originally scheduled for year 2000 implementation

13. The NCVS
Another set of data is collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and is based on surveys with victims. It is called the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and it often paints a different picture than the UCR

14. National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
Crime rates determined by public survey randomly selected by U. S. Census Bureau
First survey, 1966—President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice
The NCVS reports crimes in the form of rates per 1000

15. National Crime Victim Survey (NCVS)
Crimes studied:
Forcible rape & sexual assault
Robbery
Aggravated assault & simple assault
Theft
Household burglaries
Motor vehicle thefts
Only surveys those 12 years of age or older—Does NOT include crimes against those under 12 years of age

16. Four Reasons NCVS Questioned
Bias of Information
Credibility of Information
Wives reporting abuse, girls reporting date rape, boys reporting robberies on bad drug deals
Crimes against children under 12 not probed
Over reporting
Pollsters, not detectives, to sort out conflicting stories or facts

17. Estimated Victimization Rates
Table 3.1, Pages 65-66
Crime rates reported by NCVS & UCR for 2006 presented

18. UCR vs. NCVS
During 70s and 80s, there appeared to be low correlation between the two official sources of data in regards to victimization rates
The two reporting systems again gave conflicting signals at the end of 2001 regarding violent crimes and property crimes

19. UCR vs. NCVS UCR—No data for victims except murder
NCVS—No data on crimes of murder, bias/hate crimes, line of duty assaults on police
No data on offenses against children under 12
No data on business robberies or burglaries
No data on arson or victims of arson
UCR—computes rates/100,000 population
NCVS—computes rates/1,000 age 12 and older or/households (no number)

20. Key Terms Statistics Official Statistics Patterns Trends Profiles Spin
Crime Clock
Uniform Crime Report
National Crime Victimization Survey
Correlation
Index crimes
Hierarchy Rule
Self report survey
Memory decay
Forward telescoping
Range (Confidence Interval)
Victimization Rates
Raw numbers
Big Picture
Rates