Modernizing Crime Statistics Report 1: Defining and Classifying Crime (2016) / Chapter Skim
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5 Proposed Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes
5 Proposed Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes
Pages 117-158
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From page 117... ...
We close in Section 5.3 with a short preview of "next steps" and issues awaiting consideration in our second, final report. 5.1 OBJECTIVES FOR A MODERN CRIME CLASSIFICATION 5.1.1 Design Principles We identified four basic principles to guide our development of a specific, modern classification of crime in the United States.
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From page 118... ...
Two additional basic design principles -- on which we settled early in considering the problem -- give structure and shape to our proposed classification: • (2) The suggested classification should satisfy all the properties of a fully realized classification for statistical purposes: A statistical classification of crime would be one meant to provide information on the structure and extent of crime, rather than just be an amalgam of topics related to crime.
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From page 119... ...
It is not to suggest anything hard-set about the ordering of offenses within the classification, such as their severity or importance. The relationship between these two points is driven by the assumption that the operational unit of analysis for eventual data collection will be crime incidents that may consist of more than one offenses -- and we oppose the imposition of a UCR-type "Hierarchy Rule" that would try to compress a broader criminal incident into something where only one offense is permitted/collected.
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From page 120... ...
Accordingly, federal and state criminal codes remain an essential reference and anchor in defining and classifying crime. For at least baseline concordance with the actions for which law enforcement officers can make arrests and that the justice system can pursue charges, it would be useful for the main thrust of the classification to resemble a list of known, identifiable offenses.
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From page 121... ...
But, while high-level aggregates like states or the nation as a whole may be of little direct value for many domestic crime statistics users, easing cross-national comparison of types of crimes is also a useful goal. This is particularly the case when attention shifts toward white-collar offenses rather than violent "street" crime -- and especially when starting to get a sense of the levels and extent of cybercrime, given the way that computer involvement can supersede traditional physical geography.
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From page 122... ...
In terms of the mode of collection, we think it safe to assume that both local law enforcement reports of crimes known to the police and household survey measures of victimization will continue to be a major part of crime measurement going forward, but not the only sources. We are obliged by our charge to consider "nontraditional" types of crime, and correspondingly must envision a role for nontraditional actors in the crime measurement system -- private companies, credit agencies, nongovernmental agencies, private police/security firms, and other federal statistical agencies -- for which the "standard" data collection modes might not be most apt.
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From page 123... ...
of aggravated assaults (more visible and scrutinized, Part I offenses) as simple assaults (less visible, Part II)
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From page 124... ...
. 5.2 RECOMMENDED CLASSIFICATION OF CRIME Weighing these principles and objectives, reviewing the demands of crime statistics users and stakeholders, and considering the existing examples of crime classification plans, we find one uniquely promising alternative: Conclusion 5.3: The International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS)
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From page 125... ...
It is also to the ICCS's credit that it has won the approval of the various United Nations commissions to which it has been submitted -- not because full compliance with international standards is a paramount goal, but because the capacity for international comparison of different crime types is ultimately a good thing, in our assessment. It is also to the ICCS' credit that it was constructed in concert and with involvement from Australia, Ireland, and other nations from whose crime classifications we have drawn ideas and inspiration.
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From page 126... ...
Acts involving controlled substances 7. Acts involving fraud, deception, or corruption 8.
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From page 127... ...
Other unlawful acts leading to death 2. Acts causing harm or intending to cause harm to the person 2.1.
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From page 128... ...
Other dangerous acts leading to injury 2.9. Acts intended to induce fear or emotional distress 2.9.1.
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From page 129... ...
Other injurious acts of a sexual nature 4. Acts of violence or threatened violence against a person that involve property 4.1.
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From page 130... ...
Acts involving controlled substances 6.1. Unlawful possession or use of controlled drugs for personal consumption 6.2.
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From page 131... ...
Acts related to social public order norms and standards 8.1.3. Other acts against public order behavioral standards 8.2.
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From page 132... ...
Other acts related to democratic elections 8.8. Acts contrary to labor law 8.8.1.
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From page 133... ...
War crimes 11.7. Other criminal acts not elsewhere classified 5.2.2 Provisional Set of Attributes or Tags to Accompany Proposed Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes The following set of attributes -- some covering the complete crime incident (and so, potentially, multiple offenses)
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From page 134... ...
Likewise, reliable information about the mental health status (and history) of offenders, or the drug or alcohol involvement/usage by both offender and victim, would be greatly beneficial for policy development -- but so difficult to measure precisely and objectively in a routine crime statistics collection system that we omit them.
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From page 135... ...
PROPOSED CLASSIFICATION OF CRIME FOR STATISTICAL PURPOSES 135 – Outdoors: Street, sidewalk, road, alley, or highway; park or playground; beach, lake, or waterway; camp or campground; field or woods; other – Other physical location: Construction site; abandoned/condemned structure; tribal lands; other/unspecified physical location – Multiple physical locations – Not location-based (e.g., cybercrime) • Number of victims, all offenses in incident: Numeric, with provision for coding "victimless" crimes and unknown/many victims • Number of offenders, all offenses in incident: Numeric • Extraterritoriality: Yes/No depending on whether the incident includes offenses that may have been committed, executed, or initiated in another country or state, but federal or state law holds that such offense may be considered as though committed within local jurisdiction • Multiple jurisdiction: Yes/No if the incident includes offenses that could be legitimately counted or reported in more than one law enforcement agency's operational jurisdiction Per-Offense Attributes • Offense attempt or completion: – Attempted – Threatened (neither attempted nor completed)
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From page 136... ...
– Unknown • Group support/motivation: – Organized: Gang-related; organized crime-related; terrorism-related; unknown organized involvement – Unorganized (e.g., protest/demonstration) – Not applicable – Not known • Apparent/suspected bias motivation: Yes/no indicators for any of: – Race/ethnicity – Religion – Sexual orientation – Gender – Disability – Professional affiliation (including justice system/law enforcement)
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From page 137... ...
Office of Management and Budget • Gender, victim: – Male – Female – Not applicable – Not known • Age, victim: Numeric • Resident status, victim: (with respect to operational jurisdiction of reporting law enforcement agency) – Nonresident – Resident – Unknown • Citizenship, victim: – U.S.
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From page 138... ...
The Irish "condensed" crime classification was one inspiration for this stylistic choice, but more generally we sought to make the second- and third-level category lists as meaningful as possible, and so felt that working down to that level (particularly with the added flexibility for reclassification that would come with the companion collection of attribute data) would be sufficiently precise for an array of uses.
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From page 139... ...
These changes are the deliberate avoidance of the long-standing concept of "aggravated assault," instead focusing on components that were previously fused under that general heading, and the incorporation of one particular type of weaponry -- firearms -- into category headings for assault and threat, so as to be able to systematically count events that involve the shooting of a firearm. On the first of these points, it is important to note that assault has always been a difficult concept in crime measurement, lacking as it does the clearly identifiable extreme-point outcomes of either ultimate harm (death)
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From page 140... ...
have been omitted from the aggravated assault group" -- not because they lack the potential to produce death or great bodily harm, but because "they are usually offenses of malicious mischief by children." Ambiguity as to whether the use of an external weapon automatically makes an assault "aggravated" rather than "simple" -- and so counted among the more serious UCR Part I offenses, rather than the less visible Part II -- continues in current UCR usage. The UCR program currently uses a twosentence definition that stipulates that weaponry "usually" triggers counting as aggravated assault (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2013b:37)
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From page 141... ...
Participants in the panel's workshopstyle sessions critiqued the overinclusive nature of the current UCR definition, frustrated at the stereotypical barroom dispute that -- in the mere presence of a single firearm -- leads to the recording of potentially dozens of aggravated assaults -- with no sense whatsoever from the data whether the firearm was actually used, how real the threat may have been, or whether any actual shooting or wounding took place. But just as there is no solid reason to believe that misclassification between aggravated and simple assault is purely naive, neither can the possibility of willful "cooking the books" to make headline-grabbing violent crime totals appear lower be dismissed.
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From page 142... ...
An officer could properly "title" an incident as being "felony battery" -- battery through use of hands/fists or feet, without weapons, that causes serious bodily injury -- but "felony battery" does not exist in the Crime Class Code list. Hence, offenses labeled by the reporting officer as "felony battery" or just "battery" are prone to being coded by the records clerks as just "battery" -- which the records management system treats as simple assault for UCR purposes rather than aggravated assault (Bustamante, 2015)
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From page 143... ...
derivable from current national sources for comparative purposes -- particularly because the number of shootings last night, or last week, or last month are summary statistics that every police chief, sheriff, or other law enforcement official is said to want to know (and is expected to know) instantly.
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From page 144... ...
applications (e.g., topic supplements to the National Crime Victimization Survey and the surveys of consumer fraud conducted by the Federal Trade Commission)
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From page 145... ...
We agree with the ICCS about grouping these two crime types under the heading (2.9, in our classification) of acts intended to induce fear or emotional distress.
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From page 146... ...
1.1.1.3 Other securities fraud 1.1.2 Commodities trading fraud 1.1.2.1 Forex (foreign exchange) fraud 1.1.2.2 Commodity pool fraud 1.1.2.3 Precious metals fraud 1.1.2.4 Other commodities fraud 1.1.3 Other investment opportunities fraud 1.1.3.1 Hollywood film scam 1.1.3.2 Property/real estate scam 1.1.3.3 Rare object scam 1.2 Consumer products and services fraud 1.2.1 Worthless or nonexistent products (intentionally entered agreement)
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From page 147... ...
1.2.3 Unauthorized billing for products or services 1.2.3.1 Buyer's clubs 1.2.3.2 Unauthorized billing, Internet services -- Subcategories for online Yellow Pages and other 1.2.3.3 Unauthorized billing, phone services -- Subcategories for cramming, slamming, and other 1.2.3.4 Unauthorized billing, magazines 1.2.3.5 Unauthorized billing, credit monitoring services 1.2.3.6 Other unauthorized billing fraud 1.2.4 Other consumer products and services fraud 1.3 Employment fraud 1.3.1 Business opportunities fraud 1.3.1.1 Multilevel marketing scheme 1.3.1.2 Vending machines/ATM leasing scam 1.3.1.3 House flipping courses 1.3.1.4 Business coaching scam 1.3.1.5 Other 1.3.2 Work-at-home scam 1.3.2.1 Home assembly 1.3.2.2 Envelope stuffing 1.3.2.3 Mystery Shopper 1.3.2.4 Reshipping 1.3.2.5 Other 1.3.3 Government job placement scam 1.3.4 Other employment scam 1.3.4.1 Nanny scam 1.3.4.2 Modeling fraud 1.4 Prize and grant fraud 1.4.1 Prize promotion/sweepstakes scam 1.4.1.1 Free product 1.4.1.2 Free vacation 1.4.1.3 Cash prize 1.4.1.4 Sweepstakes scam 1.4.1.5 Other 1.4.2 Bogus lottery scam 1.4.2.1 Foreign lottery scam 1.4.2.2 Other 1.4.3 Nigerian letter fraud 1.4.4 Government grant scam 1.4.5 Inheritance scam 1.4.6 IRS tax refund opportunity 1.4.7 Other prize and grant fraud 1.5 Phantom debt collection fraud 1.5.1 Government debt collection scam 1.5.1.1 Court impersonation scam 1.5.1.2 IRS back taxes scheme 1.5.1.3 Other 1.5.2 Lender debt collection scam 1.5.2.1 Obituary scam 1.5.2.2 Loan debt scam 1.5.2.3 Other
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From page 148... ...
1.5.3 Business debt collection scam 1.5.3.1 Fake health and medical debt 1.5.3.2 Other 1.5.4 Other phantom debt fraud 1.6. Charity fraud 1.6.1 Bogus charitable organization 1.6.1.1 Bogus natural disaster-related charity 1.6.1.2 Bogus disease-related charity 1.6.1.3 Bogus law enforcement charity 1.6.1.4 Bogus veteran charity 1.6.1.5 Bogus church/religious group charity 1.6.1.6 Bogus animal shelter 1.6.1.7 Bogus alumni charitable giving 1.6.1.8 Bogus children's charity 1.6.1.9 Bogus political group 1.6.1.10 Bogus youth organization 1.6.1.11 Other 1.6.2 Crowdfunding for bogus cause 1.6.2.1 Fake personal medical expenses 1.6.2.2 False identity as natural disaster or national tragedy survivor 1.6.2.3 Other 1.6.3 Other charity fraud 1.7 Relationship and trust fraud (wherein expected outcome is fostering a relationship)
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From page 149... ...
While we are not beholden to the extant text of federal or state criminal code, "reckless indifference to human life" is prominent in the wording of the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code definition of murder/intentional homicide, and so has made its way into various state statutes. In this nod to current widespread usage, we also recognize the need for care with the term "reckless," because it might be inappropriately deemed to be equal with "negligent." • The ICCS crafts a second-level category for sexual violence, with rape and sexual assault as third-level categories within.
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From page 150... ...
, but the communicated threat to cause disruption seems sufficiently serious as to warrant separate categorization. • The ICCS's category 6 heading, acts involving controlled drugs or other psychoactive substances, includes the second clause so as to include alcohol, tobacco, or other substances -- things that may be more tightly regulated in other countries than they are in the American experience.
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From page 151... ...
Meanwhile, inasmuch as the content of the ICCS's alcohol and tobacco plank seemed to deal with taxation/revenue policy, we combined the two with another "sin tax" category with variation by state -- gambling -- as a subcategory under 8.4 acts contrary to public revenue or regulatory provisions. • For sake of parsimony, and recognizing the likely difficulty that lies ahead in collecting data on the topic, we opted to collapse the ICC's distinction between "active bribery" and "passive bribery" under our category 7.3.1.
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From page 152... ...
Category 9.3's handling of organized crime was and remains a point of debate with the UNODC work group, and is certainly worthy of inclusion in an international crime framework. However, we struggled with how best to cast this in our suggested classification, largely due to the inherent difficulty of fully documenting organized crime involvement without (and even sometimes with)
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From page 153... ...
State criminal statutes vary greatly in the age cut-offs below which a person is deemed unable to grant consent for sexual activity or other purposes, or below which referral to child protective services (or other juvenile-specific law enforcement branches)
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From page 154... ...
That said, we recognize that this particular moment in time presents a unique opportunity, coming as it does in the wake of public statements by the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation noting frustration with the state of current crime statistics, indicating intent to sunset the UCR Program's Summary Reporting System in favor of a full-fledged NIBRS, and elevating improvement of crime statistics (and creation of a parallel database to record law enforcement use-of-force incidents)
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From page 155... ...
To begin, we repeat a point that we made earlier in this chapter describing our objectives for constructing the classification: By stating the classification now and in this form, we do not suggest or expect that it be immediately swapped in as the underlying offense code list for NIBRS, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) , or any current data collection.
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From page 156... ...
The first corollary is that the transition away from the SRS format and content is sound and appropriate. The SRS was a major advance when created in 1929–1930 and proved instrumental for decades in shedding basic light on national crime trends, but it is simply inadequate to provide information of the quality or the level of detail demanded by modern crime data users.
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From page 157... ...
Classifying crime is but the first step -- very complex in its own right, but arguably the "easy" part -- in modernizing the nation's crime statistics infrastructure.
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