measuring crime behaviour

8/10/2019 measuring crime behaviour

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Chapter Two:

Measuring Crime &Criminal Behavior


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Chapter Summary

Chapter Two introduces the students tothe techniques used to collect data oncrime in the United States. The chaptercovers the pros and cons of officialstatistics, victimization survey data, andself-reported data.

The second half of the chapterdiscusses the financial cost of crime,and how that cost is estimated. In theconcluding section, the chapterhighlights some of the major theoriesused to explain crime trends in theUnited States through time.


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Chapter Summary After reading this chapter, students should

be able to:

Understand how crimes are categorized andmeasured. Understand the concept of a crime rate. Be able to describe the strengths and

weaknesses of official crime statistics asmeasured by the Uniform Crime Reports

(UCR). Be able to describe the strengths andweaknesses of victimization crime statisticsas measured by the National CrimeVictimization Survey (NCVS)..


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Be able to describe the strengths andweaknesses of self-report data.

Understand the expected role of theNational Incident-Based ReportingSystem (NIBRS).

Be able to describe the major areas ofagreement among the various measures

of crime. Understand the difficulty ofinterpreting crime trends.

Chapter Summary


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Categorizing and Measuring Crime andCriminal Behavior

When attempting to understand,predict, and control any social problem,including the crime problem, the firststep is to determine its extent.

Three categories of major crimedata sources in the United States: Official statistics

Victimization survey data

Self-reported data


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The Uniform Crime Reports:Counting Crime Officially

The primary source of official crimestatistics in the United States is theannual Uniform Crime Reports(UCR)compiled by the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation (FBI).

The UCR reports crimes known to thenations police and sheriffs departmentsand the number of arrests made by theseagencies; federal crimes are not included

Participation in the UCR reportingprogram is voluntary, and thus all agenciesdo not participate.


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The UCR separates crimes into twocategories: Part I offenses (orIndex crimes) and Part II offenses.

Murder: The willful (non-

negligent) killing of one humanbeing by another.

Forcible rape: The carnalknowledge of a female forciblyand against her will.



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Robbery: The taking or attemptedtaking of anything of value from thecare, custody, or control of a personor persons by force or threat of forceor violence and/or putting the victim

in fear. Aggravated assault: An unlawful

attack by one person upon another forthe purpose of inflicting severe oraggravated bodily injury.



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Burglary: The unlawful entry of a structure to commit afelony or theft.

Larceny-Theft: The unlawful taking, leading, or riding away

from the possession or constructive possession of another.

Motor vehicle theft: The theft or attempted theft of amotor vehicle.



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Arson: Any willful or maliciousburning or attempting to burn,with or without intent todefraud, a dwelling house, publicbuilding, motor vehicle oraircraft, personal property ofanother, etc.



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Determining Crime Rates

The rate of a given crime is theactual number of reported crimesstandardized by some unit of thepopulation

To obtain a crime rate we divide thenumber of reported crimes in astate by its population, and multiplythe quotient by 100,000.


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The FBIs famous crime clockprovides estimates of the relativefrequency with which each Part IIndex crime (arson is omitted) iscommitted.

Part II offenses are treated as lessserious offenses and are recordedbased on arrests made rather thancauses reported to the police.

Part II may not be true criminal

offenses, or if they are, may not beparticularly serious.


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Cleared Offenses-If a person is arrested and chargedfor a Part I offense, the UCRrecords the crime as cleared by

arrest.. A crime is also recorded as cleared

by exceptional means, or the policehave identified a suspect and haveenough evidence to support arrest,

but he or she could not be taken intocustody immediately, or at all.


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Figure 2.1 The FBI's Crime Clock for 2004

Every 23.1 seconds: One Violent CrimeEvery 32.6 minutes: One MurderEvery 5.6 minutes: One Forcible RapeEvery 1.3 minutes: One RobberyEvery 36.9 seconds: One AggravatedAssaultEvery 3.1 seconds: One Property Crime

Every 14.7 seconds: One BurglaryEvery 4.5 seconds: One Larceny-theftEvery 25.5 seconds: One Motor VehicleTheft

Source: Federal Bureau ofInvestigation. (2005). Crime inthe United States, 2004.Washington, DC: GovernmentPrinting Office.Note: The crime clock should beviewed with care. The mostaggregate representation of UCRdata, it conveys the annual

reported crime experience byshowing a relative frequency ofoccurrence of Part I offenses. Itshould not be taken to imply aregularity in the commission ofcrime. The crime clockrepresents the annual ratio ofcrime to fixed time intervals.


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The UCR data significantly under-represents the actual number ofcriminal events in the United Stateseach year.

Drug offenses and federal crimes

are not included. The voluntary nature of the UCRprogram means that the crimescommitted in the jurisdictions ofnon-participating law enforcementagencies are not included in thedata.

Crime data may be falsified bypolice departments for politicalreasons.

Problems with the UCR


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The UCR under-reports crimesthat are know to the policebecause of the FBIs hierarchyrule, which requires police toreport only the highest offense

committed in a multiple-singleincident to the FBI and to ignoreothers.

The most frequent criticism hasbeen that these data are too

easily affected by discretionarypolice policies to be consideredreliable.



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Table 2.1 Estimated Number of Arrests for Part I and Part II Crimesby Sex and Age in 2000 and 2004

Males Females


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Figure 2.2Percentage of Crimes Cleared by Arrest in 2004

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2005). Crime in the United States, 2004.Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.


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Figure 2.4 Highlights From the 2004 NCVS Survey Data

Source: Catalano, S. (2005). Criminal victimization, 2004.Washington, DC: Bureau of JusticeStatistics.


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The National Incident-BasedReporting System (NIBRS) beganin 1982, and is designed for thecollection of more detailed andmore comprehensive crime

statistics NIBRS collects data on 46 GroupA offenses and 11 Group Boffenses

There is no hierarchy rule under

the NIBRS system

NIBRS:The New and Improved UCR


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The NIBRS provides informationabout the circumstances of theoffense and about victim andoffender characteristics.

Although reliable, the NIBRS stillgenerates concern over the darkfigure of crime, which refers to allof the crimes committed thatnever come to official attention.

NIBRS:The New and Improved UCR


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Crimes such as drug dealing and all

victimless crimes are notrevealed, as well as the seriouscrime of murder.

Crimes committed againstcommercial establishments are not

included. Victimization data do not have tomeet any stringent legal orevidentiary standards in order tobe reported as an offense.

Problems with the NCVS


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Areas of Agreement between theUCR and NCVS

Both the UCR and NCVS agree onthe demographics of crime.

Males, the young, the poor, andAfrican Americans are morelikely to be perpetrators andvictims of crime than arefemales, older persons,wealthier persons, and personsof other racial or ethniccategories.

Both agree on recent crime trends.


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Self-Reported Crime Surveys

Self-reported surveys of criminal

offending are a way criminologists areable to collect data for themselveswithout having to rely ongovernmental sources.

These surveys involve asking people to

disclose their delinquent and criminalinvolvement on anonymousquestionnaires or face-to-faceinterviews.


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Self-Reported Crime Surveys

The greatest strength of self-report

research is that researchers cancorrelate a variety of characteristicsof respondents with their admittedoffenses that go beyond thedemographics of age, race, and

gender. Self-report crime measures provide

largely accurate information aboutsome forms of anti-social offending,and reveal that almost everyone has

committed some sot of illegal actsometime in their life.


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Problems with Self-Reported CrimeSurveys

The great majority of self-reportedstudies survey conveniencesamples of high school and collegestudents.

Self-report studies typically

uncover only fairly trivial antisocialacts such as fighting, stealing itemsworth less than $5, smoking, andtruancy.


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Problems with Self-Reported CrimeSurveys

Even though most people areforthright in revealing theirpeccadilloes, most people do nothave a serious criminal history, andthose who do have a distinct

tendency to under-report theircrimes.

Reporting honesty varies acrossrace/ethnicity and gender


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The Dark Figure of Crime Revisited

For official statistics, the dark

figures are highly concentrated atthe non-serious end of the crimeseriousness spectrum.

Dark figures for victimizationdata are primarily concentrated inthe non-serious end of thespectrum, although to a lesserdegree than in the case of officialdata.

Most of the dark figures in thecase of self-reports are

concentrated in the upper end ofthe seriousness continuum.


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h l d h h


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What Can We Conclude about the Three MainMeasures of Crime in America?

UCR data is probably the bestsingle source of data forstudying serious crimes,especially murder rates andcircumstances.

For studying less serious typesof crimes, either victimization orself-report survey data are thebest

If the interest is in drug

offenses, self-reports are thepreferable data source.


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The Financial Cost of Crime

Most estimates of the annualfinancial cost of crime focus onthe costs of running thecriminal justice system, whichincludes the salaries andbenefits of the personnel, andthe maintenance costs buildingsand equipment. These costs areknown as the direct costs ofcrime.


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The Financial Cost of Crime

The indirectcosts of crimeinclude manner of surveillanceand security devices, protectivedevices, and insurance costs,medical services, and theproductivity and taxes lost ofincarcerated individuals.


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Interpreting Crime Trends

There is no single cause of crimeor criminality, there is no singlecause that explains crime trends

Possible reasons for crime ratefluctuations since the 1960s:

Poverty: Changes in the povertyrate can be accompanied bywither an increase or decrease inthe crime rate, depending onwhat years we begin and end with

and what other process areoperating at the same time.


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Affluence: The affluent societyoffers many targets for criminals toaim at, as well as more goods availableto steal.


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Moral Breakdown & Societal Well-

Being:

Many think that a breakdown in the

general moral order that occurred in the

tumultuous 1960s may be the

explanation for the rise in crime

through the early 1990s.


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The Family: Problems of the family,such as divorce, can be expected toimpact other areas of society.


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Deindustrialization: Theworkplace transition hasimpacted minorities andwhites of low socioeconomic

backgrounds most severelyresulting in a lot offrustration and thehardening of poverty.

d


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The Prison Boom: Advocates ofget tough policies credit theincreased numbers of offendersbeing imprisoned for the decreasein crime.

The Baby-Boomer Bubble: Whenthe first cohort of baby-boomersbecame teenagers in the early1960s, there would be a ratherdramatic increase in crime.


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Drug Market Stability: Just asprohibition of the manufactureand sale of alcohol in the 1920sand 1930s spawned large

increases in violent crime asviolent gangs vied for control ofthe alcohol market, the illicitdrug market spawned hugeincreases in the violent crime inthe 1980s.


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Figure 2.6 Incarceration Rates for SelectedCountries in Mid-2004

Source: Mauer, M. (2005). Comparative international rates of incarceration: An examination ofcauses and trends.Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project. Reproduced with permission.

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