Measures of Crime and Victimization
Overview
Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR)
UCR is a program which was primarily established to provide reliable information during administration, law enforcement, management and operation of social aspects that trigger instances of crime and victimization. According to Stogner (2015), UCR is the foundation to a considerable number of students pursuing criminology, media personnel, researchers and the members of public intending to have a clear view of the criminal justice system. The program contributes significantly to reducing the impact of crime and victimization to individuals across the community members. Equally, it is through examining UCR reports that readers get to know past crime history, hence putting in place measures for suppressing its negative impacts.
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
NIBRS was implemented to improve the quality of crime-related data collected by law enforcers. Truman, Langton & Planty (2015) suggest that NIBRS provides vivid information on every single crime evidenced, including details of victims, offenders, arrestees in addition to their relationships. Persons with much interest in criminal reports prefer using NIBRS since it provides comprehensive information on the time of the day, location as well as information on whether an instance was cleared. Truman, Langton & Planty (2015) further opine that NIBRS is a crucial program for promoting constructive discussion, informed policing and ensuring measured planning.
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
National Crime Victimization Survey has been considered as the primary provider of information regarding crime occurrences. According to Truman, Langton & Planty (2015), NCVS is executed through conducting interviews about crime and victimization on unique individuals which acts as the representative sample. Notably, the survey cuts across 95,000 households targeting to reach 160,000 individuals. Truman, Langton & Planty (2015) further opined that the program is strictly concerned about accessing less fatal cases. Precisely, the claims covered within the survey include personal and household property crimes that do not have a severe impact on human lives.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
UNODC is taxed with collecting data on criminal justice operations which is later analyzed to formulate policies used in the international community. Truman, Langton & Planty (2015) enlightens that UNODC contributes greatly to developing standards for regulating criminal justice and national crime information systems. Besides, UNODC utilized by researchers while conducting crime victimization surveys. It is worth noting that the users of data obtained from UNODC can make a comparison on various aspects hence identifying key indicators and learning more about reporting tools. Importantly, UNODC provides crime-related information not only at a regional level but also national level.
Comparison of the programs
Based on the above overview, it is evident that Uniform Crime Reporting has significant differences as well as similarities from the other programs. Overall, UCR, UNODC, NCVS and NIBRS provides crime and victimization information to individuals who have an interest in criminal justice reports (Lauritsen, Owens, Planty, Rand & Truman, 2016). Besides, the information provided in each of the programs is utilized by researchers while gathering data for analysis. While UCR information is relied on during law enforcement, administration and management, NIBRS is used in extracting detailed information about offenders, victims and their relationships (Truman, Langton & Planty, 2015). Besides, UCR consists of four data collections while the other programs entail only one set of data collection.
While UCR is conducted to provide information for law enforcement and administration, NIBRS is concerned about ensuring the quality of data utilized. As stated earlier, researchers prefer extracting their data from NIBRS as opposed to other programs since it provides comprehensive information regarding offenders, victims and most importantly their relationships (Truman, Langton & Planty, 2015). It worth noting that the information found in UCR and NIBRS is controlled by the Federal Bureau Investigation (Truman, Langton & Planty, 2015). Equally, the FBI is tasked with ensuring that the data used in both UCR and NIBRS is in line with the regulations governing crime and victimizations reports.
National Crime Victimization Surveys are considered as the primary source of data used in formulating crime and victimization surveys. Differently, NIBRS improves the quality of data provided while UCR’s information is used in law enforcement, administration and management (Truman, Langton & Planty, 2015). It is important to note that the data used in analyzing NCVS reports is obtained directly from interviews as opposed to that one from UCR and NIBRS which is generated from other secondary sources (Truman, Langton & Planty, 2015). While NCVS collects data about nonfatal cases, UCR and NIBRS are all-around programs that focus on various types of cases.
Like NIBRS, UCR and NCVS, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was established to collect data on crime and victimization to be used by researchers and students who are pursuing criminal justice courses. Again, NIBRS seem to have similar aspects as those found in, UCR, UNODC and NCVS in the sense that they provide information that is applied in developing international crime reports (Lauritsen, Owens, Planty, Rand & Truman, 2016). As opposed to UCR and NIBRS, UNOCC is equipped with various learning tools that make it possible for learners to compare the reports features.
Advantages and disadvantages of the programs
Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR)
Among the advantages of UCR is that it provides specific details about arrest and crimes in various communities. According to Hemenway & Solnick (2015), UCR aids in collecting accurate data regarding a particular crime based on different categories. It is important to note that anyone can access the information found in UCR at any time. Hemenway & Solnick (2015) further suggest that UCR is associated with various shortcomings, including using voluntary data. UCR seems to be not much effective in generating reliable information since it depends on crime discovery for it to be accurate.
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
The first advantage of NIBRS is that it provides the readers with detailed information regarding crime’s facts. As opposed to other programs, for instance, UCR, NIBRS gives a more in-depth analysis of cases through providing the user with the location and even the exact time of the day when a particular crime occurred (Lauritsen, Owens, Planty, Rand & Truman, 2016). Due to its in-depth analysis of cases, NIBRS is utilized by the FBI in making informed decisions. Even though the FBI controls the program, it is sometimes associated with shortcomings during the identification of errors.
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
The primary reason why individuals prefer to obtain crime-related information from NCVS is that it is among the reliable sources of unreported data. Importantly, it is through the use of NCVS that data users have access to a wide variety of variables related to crime and victimization. Lauritsen, Owens, Planty, Rand & Truman (2016) supports the efficiency of NCVS by suggesting the program receives the highest response rate as compared to UCR and NIBRS. The effectiveness of NCVS is compromised by the fact that it only provides national estimates in addition to not tracking the American crime rate. Besides, its response rate has been declining over the last few years.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
UNODC is relied upon by a considerable number of users since it combines the features of the United Nations International Drug Program (UNDCP) and Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CPC). Equally, the combination of elements from both programs makes UNODC more effective (Hemenway & Solnick, 2015). UNODC receives massive support from the State since it aids significantly in suppressing cases related to illicit drugs, crime, international terrorism, criminal justice and political corruption (Hemenway & Solnick, 2015). It is, however, worth noting that UNODC has received negative reviews due to its partnership with the Rule of Law and Anticorruption Center (RLAC). Precisely, RLAC has been associated with corruption cases in addition to terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda.
It is worth noting that the combination of information from the various databases provides a wide range of data due to the variation of their features. Hemenway & Solnick (2015) opine that utilization of the data found in the four databases; UNODC, NCVS, NIBRS and UCR assist the researchers in gathering information more efficiently. The previous research supports the combination of the various features of the databases by suggesting that they aid the users to gain a deep understanding of instances related to crime and victimization.
The propositions outlined by Lauritsen, Owens, Planty, Rand & Truman (2016) suggest that the databases provide different approaches for addressing various crime cases. Besides, the combination of the multiple databases allows learners to compare their efficiency which aids in selecting the most reliable information during the research (Lauritsen, Owens, Planty, Rand & Truman, 2016). Combination of the data from various databases provides a wide range of information hence boosting learner’s understanding. Importantly, the State, as well the community members, can utilize the data found in the four databases to track the rate of crime within a specified period.
Hemenway, D., & Solnick, S. J. (2015). The epidemiology of self-defense gun use: Evidence from the National Crime Victimization Surveys 2007–2011. Preventive medicine, 79, 22-27.
Lauritsen, J. L., Owens, J. G., Planty, M., Rand, M. R., & Truman, J. L. (2016). Methods for counting high-frequency repeat victimizations in the national crime victimization survey.
Stogner, J. M. (2015). Uniform Crime Reports. The Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, 1-5.
Truman, J. L., Langton, L., & Planty, M. (2015). Criminal victimization, 2015. Washington, DC.