Criminology Chapter 02 Homework Hate Crime Statistics Which Collect Information Traditional

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Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e

SAGE Publishing, 2021

Lecture Notes

Chapter 2: Measuring Crime

Learning Objectives

2.2 Distinguish key features and some of the major limitations associated with the National

Crime Victimization Survey.

2.4 Identify different types of self-report surveys.

2.5 Describe additional data-collection methods used for more specific purposes or specific

populations.

Chapter Outline

I. Introduction

i. Undetected, or unreported, crimes are referred to as the dark figure of

crime.

ii. Measuring crime is necessary for various reasons. Some of these reasons

include describing crime, explaining why crime occurs, and evaluating

programs and policies.

iii. It is important to legislators, as well as concerned citizens, that crime

v. Another purpose of measuring crime is explanation. Identifying causes

requires that differences in crime rates can be related to differences in

people and their situations.

vi. Counting crime is also used to evaluate and justify programs and policies

that try to address criminal activity (e.g., rehabilitation, incapacitation,

deterrence).

II. Data from Law Enforcement Agencies

i. Law enforcement agencies throughout the United States gather a number of

crime statistics.

ii. The five methods used to accomplish this are the Uniform Crime Reports,

the Supplementary Homicide Reports, the National Incident-Based

Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e

SAGE Publishing, 2021

A. Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)

i. Historical Overview

a. Between 1830 and 1930, the collection of crime statistics involved

various agencies. Individual cities, regions, and states collected

crime statistics for their respective regions in an effort to guide

policy-making.

b. During the 1927 meeting of the International Association of Chiefs

of Police (IACP), efforts were made to collect crime statistics in a

c. In 1960, these Part I crimes were termed the Crime Index. Part I

crimes were those crimes most likely to be reported to the police,

including murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, larceny,

burglary, and motor vehicle theft.

d. Information was collected on additional categories of crimes,

ii. The UCR Program

a. The primary objective of the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) is to

generate a consistent (or reliable) set of crime statistics that can be

used in law enforcement administration, operation, and

management.

b. Over the years, however, the UCR has become one of the

country’s foremost indicators of crime. The UCR has provided

c. The FBI emphasizes that classifying and scoring crimes are the

two most important functions of agencies participating in the

Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e

SAGE Publishing, 2021

iii. Limitations of the UCR

a. As early as 1931, there were criticisms concerning the UCR, and

some of these still apply to the current UCR. Even with these

criticisms, the UCR continues to be a major source of information

pertaining to crime in the United States.

b. It is essential to note that the UCR is a “summary–based system.”

These data are a summary, or total count, of crimes based on the

reporting agencies. The best-known summary UCR measures are

B. Supplementary Homicide Reports

i. Supplementary Homicide Reports: Part of the UCR Program. These data

provide more detailed information on the incident (e.g., the offender, the

victim).

ii. In addition to the SHR, another national data collection system

administered in the United States to collect detailed information on

C. The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

i. The NIBRS Program

a. The National Incident-Based Reporting System is an enhanced

version of the UCR Program that collects more detailed

information on incidents.

b. To further enhance participation, the UCR Program is working

with the Bureau of Justice Statistics on what has been referred to as

the National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X).

Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e

SAGE Publishing, 2021

c. The NCS-X is a “collaborative undertaking, supported by the

ii. Data Collection

a. While the UCR Program collects counts on the number of criminal

incidents involving eight offenses, and NIBRS expands the types

of offenses reported.

b. Since NIBRS uses an incident-based reporting system, it includes a

iii. Limitations of NIBRS

a. As with the UCR Program, NIBRS data include only crimes

reported to law enforcement; unreported and unrecorded crimes are

not included in NIBRS.

b. Since the NIBRS specifications were developed by a federal

agency, participating local agencies may find it difficult to work

with inflexible specifications and impose problems with reporting

procedures.

D. Hate Crime Data

i. On April 23, 1990, the president signed into law the “Hate Crime Statistics

Act of 1990.”

ii. The best-known hate crime data source is the Hate Crime Statistics, which

collect information on traditional offenses, such as murder and vandalism

that have an additional factor of bias.

SAGE Publishing, 2021

E. Data Collection

i. The collection of hate crime data provides additional information on

traditional UCR collection.

ii. Hate crimes are not separate, distinct crimes, but rather traditional offenses

motivated by the offender’s bias.

iii. If a traditional offense has been motivated by the offender’s bias, the

reporting agency is to complete the “Hate Crime Incident Report.”

F. Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Statistics

i. The FBI also collects data on the number of law enforcement officers

G. Data Collection

i. Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) is a

supplementary data collection program of the UCR.

ii. Information obtained from these data assist agencies in developing policies

to enhance officer safety.

iii. The UCR Program provided the following definitions to distinguish

between line-of-duty, felonious, and accidental deaths.

iv. Line-of-duty death: This type of death occurs when the officer is on or off

duty and acting in an official capacity while reacting to a situation that

III. Data from Victims of Crime: The National Crime Victimization Survey

i. National Crime Victimization Survey: A primary measure of crime in the

United States. It is collected by the Department of Justice and the Census

Bureau and is based on interviews with victims of crime.

ii. The primary purpose of these data is to provide additional insight into what

was referred to at the beginning of this chapter as the dark figure of crime.

iii. Law enforcement agencies use the NCVS for

a. Enhancing citizen cooperation with officials in deterring and

detecting crime.

Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e

SAGE Publishing, 2021

iv. The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration commissioned the

Committee on Social Statistics of the National Academy of Sciences–

National Research Council (NRC) to evaluate the victim surveys.

v. The NCVS converted to a computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI)

environment.

A. Limitations of the NCVS

i. Crimes such as prostitution, drug dealing, and gambling are not often

revealed in interviews for obvious reasons.

ii. NCVS surveys only households, crimes committed against commercial

businesses (e.g., stores) are not included.

iii. The validity of the NCVS is also an issue. The validity of the NCVS refers

to whether is it measuring individuals who have been victims of crimes.

iv. Two different procedures have been used to test the validity of the

participants’ responses: forward record checks and reverse record checks.

a. A forward record check begins with victims’ reports, and these are

B. Comparing the NCVS with the UCR

i. Each program was developed to serve different purposes. While both

programs collect information on overlapping types of crimes, these types of

crimes are not necessarily identical.

ii. The UCR and the NCVS programs use different methods to collect crime

data. Thus, for some crimes, they use different definitions.

iii. The two programs use different bases to calculate rates for certain crimes.

iv. Since the UCR and the NCVS implement different sampling procedures,

there may be variations in estimates of crime.

IV. Data from Self-Report Surveys

i. Generally, surveys address four broad classes of questions.

a. The prevalence of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

b. Changes in these attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors over time.

c. Differences between groups of people in their attitudes, beliefs,

and behaviors.

Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e

SAGE Publishing, 2021

A. Monitoring the Future

i. Monitoring the Future is an annual self-report survey that collects

information to measure substance and alcohol use patterns among youths.

ii. Currently, the MTF survey of 12th-grade students contains about 1,400

variables.

iii. One limitation to the MTF research design is that it does not survey the

youth that drop out of high school.

B. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health

i. Since 1971, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health has been used

to collect information annually on the use of illegal drugs by individuals in

the United States.

ii. The NSDUH is one of the largest surveys of drug use ever conducted in the

United States.

iii. The primary goal of NSDUH is to provide national as well as state-level

estimates on the following.

a. The level and patterns of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal substance

C. National Youth Survey—Family Study

i. In 1977, researchers at the University of Colorado implemented the

National Youth Survey (NYS).

ii. In 2000, the name of the survey was changed to the National Youth

Survey—Family Study.

V. Additional Approaches to Collecting Data

i. The additional data collection efforts are usually for a more specific

purpose or target a more specific population.

A. Spatial Analyses of Crime

Schram, Introduction to Criminology 3e

SAGE Publishing, 2021

i. The Spatial Analyses of Crime focuses on crime places. One major

aspect is mapping crimes which provide information as location, distance,

direction, and pattern.

ii. Location is considered the most important piece of information.

iii. Distance is also a crucial element, and Direction is most helpful when