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The Uniform Crime Report

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Recommended: What is crime from a sociological perspective

Darius Klinkner
JUS-104
February 4, 2018
Kathleen Kahn
Defining and Measuring Crime
Introduction
It is important to know how social and political changes affect the way that crime is defined, the various tools used to quantify criminal statistics and the difficulties in defining and measuring crime in the United States. Public perception influences the way that crime is defined and the Uniform Crime Report and self-reported surveys are a few ways that crime is quantified in the United States.
Social and Political Changes Affect Definition of Crime It can be very difficult to define crime in the American society when political agendas are being pushed and the public perception of not only what actions are considered to be crimes but also how …show more content…

The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is an annual attempt at measuring the overall crime rate in the United States released by the Department of Justice. The Federal Bureau of Investigation produces the UCR using information reported by the voluntary participation of law enforcement agencies. Crime information published in the Uniform Crime Report includes a breakdown of crime committed by geographic designations and the demographics of the individuals arrested for …show more content…

There are flaws in every tool used to define and measure crime because it is impossible to know actual amount of crime that takes place. The Uniform Crime Report relies on the reports of local law enforcement agencies but some surveys suggest that less than half of all criminal incidents are reported to the police. Many people fail to report crimes that they believe are insignificant while others fail to report crimes because victims are unaware that they are a victim and mistrust police. The Uniform Crime Report also relies on voluntary participants. Criminal statistics are lost when law enforcement agencies do not voluntarily participate.
The organization of criminal law enforcement is one of the primary causes for the United States’ inability to develop satisfactory criminal statistics. The individual law enforcement agencies use different methods to gather data which may be inconsistent or even inaccurate. The greater the number of reporting agencies, the greater will be the variation in the interpretation, reliability, and consistency of reports submitted, and the greater will be the difficulty of supervising or editing these reports (Ronald H. Beattie,

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