2.1 Chapter Introduction
In order for criminologists to develop and test their theories of why crime is happening, they first need to know what crime is happening. This includes knowing how much, what type, and where crime is happening, as well as who the perpetrators and victims of crime are. This information is vital for both criminologists and criminal justice system practitioners in helping them determine what is or is not working and why.
Gathering and keeping track of all this data may not sound too complicated, but it is much easier said than done. Think about what it would really take to get a clear picture of what is happening in every community across the United States in terms of criminal behavior. We already know not everyone gets caught when they commit a crime. However, we need to have an idea of the overall crime situation that is good enough to help us figure out what to do about it.
For this purpose, criminal justice professionals gather information from every type of criminal justice agency, such as local police departments, sheriff’s departments, state police, college campus police, tribal agencies, federal agencies, and all types of courts. From this giant collection of information, we try to determine the total number of crimes reported to law enforcement, the total number of arrests made by each agency, and the number and types of cases entering the court system. This data can be found in a variety of government databases and researcher-compiled reports.
The useful data in these reports may be quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative data is information that can be counted and expressed in numbers. Qualitative data is nonnumerical, descriptive information that helps us understand something. For example, if we wanted to learn about burglaries in 2023, we might look at the total number of arrests made for burglary that year (quantitative) and analyze all the police reports on burglary to look for patterns in behavior among burglars (qualitative). Figure 2.2 provides a comparison of the data types.
| Qualitative | Quantitative | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Answers why | Answers how much/many |
| Data type | Observation, symbols, words (e.g., interviews with police officers) | Numbers, statistical results (e.g., number of arrests) |
| Approach | Observe and interpret | Measure and test |
| Analysis | Grouping of common data/patterns/themes through nonstatistical analysis | Statistical analysis |
In this chapter, we will discuss current crime categories, primary sources of crime data, unreported crime, and the challenges of using crime data. There are two key sources for official crime data in the United States: the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics’s (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The UCR encompasses multiple databases that are built through reporting from law enforcement agencies around the country, whereas the NCVS contains data gathered directly from crime victims. Both sources have their own pros and cons, different purposes, and different approaches to understanding crime. Together, these sources give us a more complete picture of crime in the United States. Let’s look at what each database has to offer, starting with the biggest one, the UCR, and all its components.
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, students will be able to do the following:
- Identify national sources of crime data and official statistics, and critically evaluate the pros and cons of each.
- Explain the dark figure of crime, the reason behind the disparity, and the potential impact.
- Analyze the misuse of crime data and statistics as well as the potential consequences of misuse.
- Evaluate the challenges faced by criminologists working with various data sources and inaccurate or incomplete measures of crime.
Key Terms
- Bias crimes: criminal acts based on a particular bias or prejudice
- Dark figure of crime: unreported or unknown crime
- Hate Crime Statistics Act: the federal act that requires data collection “about crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity”; prompted data collection in the UCR
- Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA): a collection of data on incidents in which law enforcement officers were killed or injured in the line of duty; part of the UCR
- Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection (LESDC): a collection of data focusing on the loss of current and former law enforcement officers, corrections employees, 911 operators, judges, and prosecutors that hopes to prevent future deaths by suicide or suicide attempts; part of the UCR
- National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS): a database of crimes reported to the police, including incidents where multiple crimes were committed, that includes information on victims, people who have committed offenses, the relationships between victims and people who have committed offenses, people who have been arrested, and property involved in the crimes; part of the UCR
- National Use-of-Force Data Collection: a collection of data that contains statistics on the use of force by law enforcement with the goal of providing transparency and improving trust with the public; part of the UCR
- National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS): the main source of information on criminal victimization in the United States
- Qualitative data: nonnumerical descriptive information that helps us understand something
- Quantitative data: information that can be counted and expressed in numbers
- Self-report data: data that comes directly from individuals about their own experiences through methods like surveys or interviews
- Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR): the largest, most commonly used data collection currently available on crime; housed by the FBI
Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Introduction
Open Content, Original
“Chapter Introduction” by Taryn VanderPyl is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Revised by Jessica René Peterson.
Figure 2.2. “Difference Between Qualitative and Quantitative Research and Data” by Jessica René Peterson is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Opent Content, Shared Previously
Figure 2.1. “Measuring cups (¼, ½, 1 cup)” by Vimkay is incensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
legal term describing the violation of a criminal law
the system that deals with crime and its consequences
information that can be counted and expressed in numbers
non-numerical descriptive information that helps us understand something