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Chapter 3: Victimization in the United States: An Overview
from Crime Victims: An Introduction to Victimology, 10e by Andrew Karmen
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completing this chapter, the student should be able to:
L02. Explain how statistics can be given a “spin” to persuade and even mislead.
L04. Describe the kinds of data found in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual Uniform Crime
Report.
L05. Explain how the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System is preserving information about
victims from police files.
L06. Describe the kinds of data found in the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ annual National Crime
Victimization Survey.
L08. Identify trends in victimization in the United States according to official statistics.
L010. Identify the comparative risks of becoming a victim of crime as opposed to suffering other
calamities.
LESSON PLAN
Correlated to PowerPoints
I. Victimization across the Nation: The Big Picture
A. The Big Picture [Learning Objective 1]
1. It’s an accurate portrayal of crime across the United States in the twenty-first
century.
2. Victimologists interpret data to answer questions such as the following:
a. How many people are harmed by criminals each year?
b. How badly do they suffer?
3. Answers require statistical portraits of crime victims to identify patterns and
examine trends.
B. Making Sense of Statistics
1. Statistics can be used to:
a. Estimate victimization rates
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b. Expose patterns of criminal activities
c. Detect trends
d. Estimate costs and losses of illegal behavior
See Assignment 1
2. Statistics can be abused. [Learning Objective 2]
a. Interpretation often depends on the spin given to the data.
i. Officials accentuate the positive or negative to influence decision
b. Victimologists must carefully scrutinize statistics with a healthy dose of
scientific skepticism.
Media Tool
“LAPD Underreported Serious Assaults, Skewing Crime Stats for 8 Years” (http://www.latimes.com/local/cityhall/la-
me-crime-stats-20151015-story.html)
-Article from the LA Times on how crime statistics can be skewed by intentional underreporting
-Discussion: Discuss why police forces might skew crime statistics and what the negative repercussions of doing so
are.
See Assignment 2
Class Discussion/Activity
Choose some statistics presented in this chapter and interpret them in two ways: First, make them seem as alarming as
possible; second, portray them as reassuring as possible.
II. The Two Official Sources of Data
A. Facts and Figures in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
[Learning Objectives 3-5]
1. The UCR was created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
a. Established to create a standard set of definitions and reporting formats
2. Divided into two categories:
a. Part I
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i. It comprises eight serious index crimes: Violent crimes directed
against persons: murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault;
iv. It contains no information about complainants harmed.
b. Part II
i. Comprised of 21 assorted offenses: simple assault, curfew
offenses and loitering, embezzlement, forgery and
counterfeiting, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence,
3. UCR’s data collection suffers from shortcomings that undermine its accuracy and
usefulness.
a. Underreporting results in incomplete totals.
b. Provides no information about complainants who report the incidents
c. Lumps together reports of attempted with completed crimes
4. The UCR is an excellent source for crime totals but is of limited value in
studying the actual victims or the characteristics of the persons arrested.
5. To improve the UCR, the FBI is converting to a National Incident-Based
Reporting System (NIBRS).
a. Will become the standard format by 2021
b. Abandons the hierarchy rule
c. Provides expanded coverage of illegal activities: 46 Group A offenses
derived from 22 categories of crimes
d. Includes victim-oriented data
What If Scenario
As an operations officer in a local police department, you have been tasked with assessing which criminal activities your
department should most focus on based on occurrences and trends over the past few years as reported by the UCR.
Which types of crimes can you make the best assessment on based on UCR reporting?
-Discussion: After watching the clip, discuss some of the benefits the NIBRS will have on the way that crime is
reported in the United States.
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Class Discussion/Activity
What kinds of data about white–collar and occupational crime are available in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports? Why
do you think this data are not recorded to the extent of street crime? How would this information be important?
See Assignment 3
B. Facts and Figures in the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS’s) National Crime
Victimization Survey (NCVS) [Learning Objective 6]
1. The NCVS was created by the BJS.
a. Provides projections based on voluntarily disclosures to interviewers by
2. NCVS respondents answer questions from a survey that runs more than 20 pages.
a. Interviews occur every six months for three years.
b. Screening items ask, “During the last six months did anyone break into
your home?” If yes, follow-up questions are asked.
3. NCVS data have shortcomings.
a. The national sample may not be representative of the population of the
whole country.
b. The credibility of the information collected is suspect.
i. Underreporting and memory decay result in information losses.
Class Discussion/Activity
What kinds of data about white–collar and occupational crime are available in BJS’s NCVS? Why do you think this data are
not recorded to the extent of street crime? How would this information be important?
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C. Comparing the UCR and NCVS [Learning Objective 7]
1. Advantages of the UCS (over the NCVS) include the following:
2. Advantages of the NCVS (over the UCR) include the following:
3. The findings in the UCR and the NCVS are not strictly comparable because:
a. Both have differing definitions of certain crimes, such as rape, robbery,
and burglary.
b. Both have different denominators used for calculations (e.g., the FBI
computes incidents of violence “per 100,000 persons,” whereas the BJS
calculates incidents “per 1,000 people age 12 or older.”)
See Assignment 4
What If Scenario
As a city councilman in a moderately sized city just appointed to a committee focusing on crime, you have been tasked with
assessing the crime situation in your city. What government records would best be utilized for this endeavor and why?
D. A First Glance at the Big Picture: Estimates of the Number of New Crime Victims Each
Year
1. Crime in the United States in 2016 according to the UCR:
2. Crime in the United States in 2016 according to the NCVS:
a. 5.7 million acts of violence against persons (21 out of 1,000)
b. 16 million property crimes (120 out of 1,000)
E. A Second Look at the Big Picture: Watching the FBI’s Crime Clock
keeps mounting.
2. Crime Clock statistics are calculated in a straightforward manner—the total
number of incidents of each kind of crime is divided into the number of seconds
or minutes in a year.
a. Crimes of violence occur one every 25 seconds and crimes of stealing
3. Crime Clock numbers represent projections over an entire year, not the actual
timing of the attacks.
Class Discussion/Activity
Discuss the ways in which the Crime Clock can lead to sensationalism in regards to the media and politicians reporting and
discussing crime in the United States.
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F. Delving Deeper into the Big Picture: Examining Victimization Rates
2. Findings must be considered in context.
a. The Crime Clock numbers are less impressive when the overall U.S.
population is considered. Being targeted is not commonplace.
G. Tapping into the UCR and the NCVS to Fill in the Details of the Big Picture
2. Most common crimes in order are larceny (thefts of all kinds), burglary, and
motor vehicle theft.
3. Simple assaults (punching, kicking, shoving, and slapping) are the most common
violent crime and the least serious.
H. Searching for Changes in the Big Picture: Detecting Trends in Interpersonal Violence and
1. Identifying crime trends makes the big picture more useful. These include the
following:
2. During the late 1960s, a major crime wave engulfed the country, according to the
UCR.
4. An uptick in crime occurred in 2016, observed by both the UCR and NCVS.
5. Violent and property crimes follow roughly similar trends.
Media Tools
“Crime Trends: 1990–2016”
(https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/publications/Crime%20Trends%201990-2016.pdf)
-Compiled by the Brennan Center for Justice, this report examines crime trends at the national and city level during the last
quarter century.
-Discussion: Are cities in the United States becoming safer and how do they compare in terms of crime to the
country as a whole?
What If Scenario
See Assignment 5
III. Taking a Longer View: Murders in the United States Over the Past Century [Learning Objective 9]
A. Types of Murder
20–22
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1. Homicide is the killing of one human being by another. It is not always
punishable.
2. First-degree murder is the killing carried out intentionally (with “express
3. Second-degree murder is a homicide committed with intent to inflict grievous
5. Involuntary (second-degree) manslaughter is the loss of life due to gross
negligence.
6. Additional data are available from death certificates maintained by coroner’s
offices (a.k.a., medical examiners).
B. The Rise and Fall of Murder Rates Since 1900
1. Homicide rates soared from 1900 until it peaked in 1933.
3. A brief surge of killings occurred as soldiers returned from World War II but
then continued to decline.
5. Lethal violence during the twentieth century reached its all-time high in 1980.
6. Since the 1990s, the murder rate has continued downward until an uptick
beginning in 2015.
Class Discussion/Activity
What are the leading causes of death for young adults? Do these leading causes receive as much attention as homicide?
Would more attention reduce the death rate for young adults?
Media Tools
“Why We Can’t Be Sure If Violent Crime Is on the Rise” (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-we-cant-be-
sure-if-violent-crime-is-on-the-rise/)
IV. Putting Crime into Perspective: The Chances of Dying Violently—Or from Other Causes
A. Comparative risks [Learning Objective 10]
1. The study of comparative risks rests on estimates of the likelihood of
2. Victimologists also have to study differential risks, as perils vary dramatically.
LECTURE NOTES
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Victimologists gather and interpret data in order to answer questions that need to be addressed.
Victimologists are interested in when and where the majority of crimes occur, as well as details including
whether and what types of weapons were used. Another important task is to identify which groups are
victimized the most and the least often. Victimologists want to know whether individuals tend to be
research needed to bring the big picture into focus. By the 1990s, all sorts of special interest groups began
keeping count and disseminating their own estimates about the suffering of a wide variety of victims.
These statistics are extremely important in considering the amount of crime and victimization that occurs.
Statistics are meaningful numbers that reveal important information and are of crucial importance to
social scientists, policy analysts, and decision makers. Cynics point out statistics can be misused by
• identifying groups that tend to be arrested for (or be victims of) certain types of crime
• the impact of laws, correctional programs, or law enforcement efforts on crime
The U.S. Department of Justice annually publishes two different reports containing statistical data: the
FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization
Survey (NCVS). Both of these sets of data are from the federal government and are reasonably accurate
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afraid to file a complaint with the police but might provide the information in the survey. In these
examples, the UCR will not reflect these crimes.
The UCR’s accuracy is impacted by the use of the “hierarchy rule,” which means if a particular incident
involves several crimes, only the most severe is counted. Since 1991, states have been transitioning to a
in number compared to the vast majority who were not victims.
Victimologists look at both raw numbers and rates. Raw numbers reveal the actual number of victims.
On the other hand, rates are expressed as fractions or ratios that project the odds, chances, or risks of
victimization in a year. The NCVS yields estimates of the number of people who endure certain crimes
each year. An example of a raw number would be “just about 17,000 people were murdered in the United
Both sources of data confirm Americans suffer from property crimes much more frequently than from
violent crimes. Every year, theft is the most common crime of all. Burglaries are the second most
common form of victimization, and motor vehicle thefts rank third.
KEY TERMS
big picture: A general overview that reveals patterns and trends in an area that are assembled by putting
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coroner’s offices: Also called medical examiner’s offices, their purpose is to investigate a homicide and
determine what caused the person’s death, usually by performing an autopsy.
Crime Clock: A device used by the FBI in its Uniform Crime Report to illustrate how frequently a
particular crime is committed within the entire United States.
departments to classify each incident in which several laws were broken solely in terms of the most
serious offense that was committed.
index crimes: The eight crimes (seven if arson is excluded) in Part I of the UCR that are closely tracked
and whose reported incidents are added together to calculate the total crime index for a particular year:
murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft.
official statistics: Measurements and data disseminated from government agencies.
Part I: The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report designation for four crimes “against the person” (murder,
forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) and four crimes “against property” (burglary, larceny,
motor vehicle theft, and arson) that are closely monitored.
Part II: The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report designation for a grouping of over 20 types of crimes for
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range (confidence interval): A statistical notion that predicts that the true but unknown answer is very
likely to fall somewhere between the minimum and maximum value; an issue that arises when
interpreting the findings of any survey, including the NCVS.
rates: A way of expressing risks or odds by comparing the number of victims out of every 1,000
individuals, or per 100,000 people or households, in a single year; the use of rates makes it possible to
trends: Increases or decreases in a variable over time.
Uniform Crime Report (UCR): An annual, national compilation based on a total number of crimes
known to local police departments.
victimization rates: The chances of becoming harmed by a particular crime, usually expressed as “for
every 1,000 persons age 12 and older per year” (in the NCVS) or “per 100,000 inhabitants per year” (in
the UCR).
ASSIGNMENTS
1. With your classmates, develop five questions regarding crime in your local area. Explore how
2. Using the Internet, acquire crime figures for your village, town, or city for the past 20 years.
Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the UCR and NCVS in capturing and reporting this data.
3. After watching the clip NIBRS 101, discuss some of the benefits the NIBRS will have on the way
that crime is reported in the United States. Compile a list of types of information will be available in
4. Consider homicide, burglary, rape, and aggravated assault. For each of these crimes, examine the
5. Research crime rates in your local area dating back 20 years. Assemble the information into a graph
and analyze its results. What trends does it show and in what way does it compare to national crime
MULTIPLE CHOICE ANSWER KEY
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Chapter 3 You Decide: Exchange and Discretion in the Criminal Justice System
Law enforcement officials use statistics to make data-driven programming decisions. They often use
data to estimate victimization rates: realistic assessments of threat levels that criminal activities pose to
particular individuals and groups. Additionally, statistics expose patterns that reflect predictable
relationships or regular occurrences that show up during an analysis of the data year after year.
The central issue in this scenario examines how statistics can be used to answer important questions in
various criminal justice fields.
You are the newly appointed chief deputy at a county sheriff’s office in a community that is a mixed
composition of urban and suburban areas. Recently, there has been a call by citizens and local
governmental officials for change, as crime rates in your county are higher when compared to the
national average. This elevated crime rate is true for both interpersonal violence as well as for theft.
On your first day of duty, you meet with your sheriff, Morena Hernandez, who informs you that
evaluating and responding to the high crime rates is “officially your primary responsibility.”
Sheriff Hernandez informs you that all of the crime data her office has collected and kept for the
past two decades will be sent to you to assist you with this task.
Let’s review two concepts before you make a decision about this scene.
Question 1
Measurements of data disseminated from government agencies are known as _____________.
a. official statistics
b. patterns
c. victimization rates
d. demographic characteristics
Question 2
Regularities and predictable relationships that emerge during the analysis of victimization data are called
__________.
a. patterns
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b. trends
c. official statistics
d. statistical profiles
What Would You Do?
As chief deputy, you begin analyzing the crime data provided to you by Sheriff Hernandez. It
doesn’t take you long to realize that the overwhelming majority of interpersonal violent crime is
most frequently perpetrated in a small, concentrated urban area of the city. The data indicates that
the majority (over 85 percent) of the assaults, robberies, and even homicide calls that your agency
responds to originate from this area in your jurisdiction. You estimate this area to be about 20
square miles of the nearly 600 square miles your agency patrols.
As second in command at your agency, you must decide what changes (if any) you want to
implement in order to attempt to address the concentrated crime rate in this location. You are
What would you do?
a. Introduce a hot spot policing program initiative in your county, where you concentrate law enforcement
resources to the high crime area. You specifically plan increased patrol presence in that 20 square mile
radius. You believe that doing so will target the concentrated high crime rates and reduce crime in that
area.
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inform your staff that while the change will take time and adjustment, you believe it will benefit the
citizens of the community.
Let’s review two more concepts before you make another decision about this scene.
Question 3
As a practitioner and researcher, if you are wanting to express the risk by comparing the likelihood of
victimization in one community versus another, when the populations are different sizes, you should
report the __________.
a. crime rate
b. raw numbers
c. crime trend
d. crime clock
Question 4
Sharp increases in crime rates that continue over a number of years are known as ___________.
a. crime waves
b. spikes
c. crime crashes
d. victimization rates
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© 2020 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
b. Sharp increases in crime rates that continue over a number of years are known as crime waves, not
crime spikes. Crime spikes are defined as sudden jumps in crime rates. See “The Two Official Sources of
Data,” LO3, Bloom’s: Remember
c. Incorrect. Sharp increases in crime rates that continue over a number of years are known as crime
waves, not crime crashes. Crime crashes are sudden sharp drops in the victimization rate, and are the
opposite of crime waves. See “The Two Official Sources of Data,” LO3, Bloom’s: Remember
d. Incorrect. Sharp increases in crime rates that continue over a number of years are known as crime
waves, not victimization rates. Victimization rates are realistic assessments of threat levels that criminal
activities pose to particular individuals or groups. See “The Two Official Sources of Data,” LO3,
Bloom’s: Remember
What Would You Do?
Your department implements your hot spot initiative and patrol efforts are shifted to concentrate
on the high crime area in your county. Initially, when the change was first put into action many
community members (as well as some of your command staff) expressed reservations. Six months
after beginning the hot spots program, however, interpersonal violent victimization has seen a 40
percent decrease, and non-violent victimization has dropped 15 percent. You obtain authorization
from your sheriff to hold a press release to discuss the efficacy of the program with local media.
At the conclusion of your successful press release, a local media anchor, Dwayne Nguyen, praises
you for the positive impact the hot spots program has had on the county crime. Nguyen then brings
to your attention that the holiday season is approaching, and that theft increases around/near the
mall located in the city. While the mall is not located in the high crime area where you focused
patrol efforts for your hot spots program, he asks if you plan to reallocate patrol resources to the
mall to attempt to lower thefts during the predicted crime spike.
What would you do?
a. You verify Nguyen’s assertion that theft increases in/around the vicinity of the mall during the months
of November and December. You proceed to contact the sheriff to request that patrol resources be
reallocated to potentially decrease thefts around the mall for the months when shopping increases. You
base this decision off the proven efficacy of the current hot spot program.
Summary A
You meet with the sheriff to discuss your intentions of starting another short-term alternative hot
spot initiative at and around the mall during the months of November and December. You explain
that you examined and analyzed county data, specifically that which supports that crime spikes
occur in the months of November and December. The sheriff informs you that while she
appreciates your enthusiasm surrounding this new proposed initiative, she does not want to
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aimed at educating the citizens of the county about prevention strategies. It is your hope that such
programming will reduce incidents of theft in the coming months.
Summary B
You decide against making any changes to current programming. You meet with the sheriff to
justify your decision. You cite several factors including the current success of the hot spot program
at reducing violent victimization and your desire to continue to allocate resources towards this
program so that you can assess it at a later date. You assure the sheriff that while the crime spikes
at the mall are a concern you do not believe that a reallocation of patrol officers is the best use of
You decide to keep patrol distribution as it is currently without initiating a hot spot policing
initiative. You believe that more research is needed and intend to meet with local community
leaders and members of your patrol division to further examine how to best reduce criminality in
your county, specifically in high crime areas. You meet with all supervising patrol commanders in
that there will be a shift and reallocation of patrol officers in their districts. You explain that your
decision was based off an analysis of county data, specifically that which examined crime waves.
You disclose to your staff that some units will be transferred from some of the lower crime areas
and will be reassigned to the high crime area in an effort to reduce the crime rate. You inform your
staff that while the change will take time and adjustment, you believe it will benefit the citizens of
Question 3
As a practitioner and researcher, if you are wanting to express the risk by comparing the likelihood of
victimization in one community versus another, when the populations are different sizes, you should
report the __________.
a. crime rate
b. raw numbers
c. crime trend