Modernizing Crime Statistics Report 1: Defining and Classifying Crime (2016) / Chapter Skim
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3 Users (and Uses) of Crime Statistics
3 Users (and Uses) of Crime Statistics
Pages 85-102
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From page 85... ...
These discussions provided additional information about the practical challenges involved in obtaining the kinds of data that are sufficient for different purposes. In this chapter we focus on providing an overview of the broad range of uses of crime statistics discussed during these meetings so that the scope of crime information needs can be better understood in conjunction with the taxonomy that is proposed in this report.
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From page 86... ...
What follows, then, in this brief overview of the users and uses of crime data, is a rare attempt to get all sides to the same table, so to speak, in the hopes of envisioning a more useful crime statistics system. 3.1 LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES Law enforcement agencies are one of the major providers of crime data and the ways in which the different agencies in the country use their crime data differs considerably.
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From page 87... ...
An important concern that was raised about police-based crime statistics is the timeliness of their release from the FBI's UCR program; pointedly, even participants from departments that reported making use of "evidence-based" approaches spoke of having little use for time-lagged counts that progressed through the entire UCR collection process. Crime statistics typically are released by the FBI in their annual publication Crime in the United States approximately 10 months after the collection year (for example, crime statistics for 2014 were released during the last week of September 2015)
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From page 88... ...
The use of ad hoc and non-systematic gathering of crime data is problematic, leading to unproductive debates about resource needs, the causes of apparent increases and decreases in crime, and accountability. During crisis periods, an important problem with the current system noted by law enforcement agencies and others is the time delay between data submission to the UCR program and dissemination.
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From page 89... ...
do not have SACs.3 In some states, SACs play the role of, or are co-located, with the state UCR Program that relays police-report data to the FBI and the national UCR Program. However, the basic role of the SACs is not as an intermediate collector for any nationally compiled crime data but as a critical, research-oriented interpreter of justice-related data (including non-BJS crime statistics)
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From page 90... ...
A third example is the Georgia SAC, which uses crime and criminal justice data to conduct needs assessments of state drug enforcement strategies by combining data from numerous sources, and also conducts victim service needs assessments by linking geographic crime and victim claims data. These examples of SAC activities are intended to illustrate some of the ways in which crime data is used to help inform state policy makers and the public about crime and responses to crime.
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From page 91... ...
Accordingly, in the crime and justice area, crime statistics play vital roles in both policy justification and fund allocation. Participants in our meetings acknowledged that nationally compiled crime statistics are certainly not the only determinant of what policies are developed and put forward, in part because many crimerelated problems currently do not have well-developed comparative data to support crime concerns.
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From page 92... ...
Much of those funds are awarded to state and local law enforcement agencies by legally defined formula, based on calculations by BJS that use UCR data. The largest component of BJA-distributed funds is the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (or Byrne JAG)
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From page 93... ...
In at least one notable historic instance, the use of UCR data was required by law for the administration of grant funding. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 authorized the award of grant money to as many as 15 "chronic high intensive crime areas" in order to spur the development of "comprehensive model crime prevention programs." No precise formula was assigned for deriving these areas except that "at a minimum," such areas have "consistently high rates of violent crime as reported in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's ‘Uniform Crime Reports"' and "chronically high rates of poverty as determined by the Bureau of the Census" (P.L.
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From page 94... ...
mandated that local assistance grants from their Board of State and Community Corrections pool of $28 million include direct allocations to "be made available to the city in California with the highest rate" of particular crimes "as reported by city police departments in the most recent United States Department of Justice Uniform Crime Report": specifically, $670,000 to the city with the highest murder rate and $665,000 each to the cities with the highest reported rape and robbery rates. In sum, meeting participants revealed numerous ways in which crime data are required for purposes of obtaining federal or state assistance and resources for a variety of different types of programs.
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From page 95... ...
and academic researchers often work in collaboration with other users of crime data such as law enforcement agencies, local, state, and federal agencies, businesses, and other groups, so there is considerable overlap between their uses of crime data and uses by others. 3.3.1 Academic Researchers Academic and public-sector research consists of both descriptive and multivariate analysis of crime and victimization problems and their outcomes.
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From page 96... ...
Another major component of public-sector and academic research combines data and statistical models to infer how different factors and policies affect crime rates, and how crime rates may, in turn, affect other important socioeconomic outcomes (such as neighborhood change and economic development)
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From page 97... ...
3.3.2 Policy Advocacy and Issue Constituencies There are many policy advocates or issue constituencies that use crime and victimization data to make arguments to advance their claims about the nature and extent of the problem they want to see addressed. Some of these groups may be advocating for new data collections (such as in the case of previously discussed efforts to obtain hate crime statistics)
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From page 98... ...
Some businesses may use local crime data to target sales of their products, such as burglar alarms or antitheft devices. But a large component of crime data use by businesses is focused on analyzing and responding to their own crime information collection systems to protect the businesses against thefts from customers and employees, as well as other crimes including cyberattacks of various types.
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From page 99... ...
Department of Justice is typically covered in major news outlets, but increasingly local media outlets turn to their local police departments to provide regular updates on recorded crimes. Several unique issues about media and public use of crime statistics are noted here, including efforts to improve the understanding of crime and appropriate uses of data to help better inform the public about crime and related issues.
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From page 100... ...
data for illegal police-killings of civilians are highly inadequate for analysis of trends or associated factors.10 The lack of data on these incidents led several media and other organizations to "crowd-source" and develop their own, often competing, counts of these incidents from online reports. Subsequently, federal legislation has been proposed to require states to report these and other police use-of-force incidents.11 The panel also heard about an additional media use of crime statistics that prompted accusations of unfairness and negative stereotyping of cities and police departments, and this involved the reporting of simplistic crime "rankings" by some media outlets.
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From page 101... ...
Annual national, state, and local reports were deemed useful, but participants also noted that additional information to better understand the contexts in which crime rates differ would be more helpful. It was suggested that national reports would be more complete if they included information about other crimes, such as federal crimes that were not recorded in the UCR system but were equally important to understanding the fuller nature and amount of crime in the nation.
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From page 102... ...
102 MODERNIZING CRIME STATISTICS -- REPORT 1 components in this data system should be included to help ensure proper interpretation and use of the data.
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