Modernizing Crime Statistics Report 1: Defining and Classifying Crime (2016) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Summary
Summary
Pages 1-8
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 1... ...
obliges our panel to pursue three major lines of inquiry: • Substantive, developing a new classification of crime by weighing various perspectives on how crime should be defined and organized with the needs and demands of the full array of crime data users and stakeholders; • Methodological, suggesting the best (conceptual) means of collecting data based on the suggested crime classification, including the integration of data on specific crime types from non-BJS or FBI sources and enabling the identification and measurement of emerging crime types going forward; and • Implementation, recommending how crime data collection should ac tually proceed, practically and effectively, including suggesting how to leverage available information technology assets, accommodate the demands of crime data stakeholders, and moderate the burden placed on crime data providers.
|
From page 2... ...
OVERVIEW AND CORE PREMISES Our argument in this report builds in several, detailed steps: • Addressing the fundamental questions of what is meant by "crime," and suggesting why a classification is a valuable framework (Chapter 1) ; • Summarizing both the current primary sources of nationally compiled crime statistics and an illustrative sample of data collections -- not cur rently considered part of the nation's crime statistics infrastructure -- that may provide useful "crime" or contextual information (Chapter 2)
|
From page 3... ...
The short list of UCR-defined offenses constrained the view of "crime" made possible from the resulting statistics, disproportionately weighting selected "street" or violent crimes over other offenses. Moreover, the UCR's strictures helped set the content of subsequent data collections such as the NCVS.
|
From page 4... ...
-- but for other uses and crime types, existing data are incomplete, inadequate, or unavailable. From these considerations, we draw the clear and basic conclusion that developing adequate crime statistics for the United States will require more than a single data collection and more than minor modifications to the current UCR Program or NCVS: Conclusion 3.1: There is strong demand for comprehensive, yet detailed, information about crime by a broad range of users.
|
From page 5... ...
By classification for statistical purposes, we mean a framework that is exhaustive of all crime (not just restricted to violent crime or selected property crimes) and that uses clear definitions to partition offenses into mutually exclusive categories.
|
From page 6... ...
Misclassification -- whether accidental or deliberate -- between aggravated assault and simple assault is a longstanding source of frustration with current UCR police-report data, and is a primary issue when law enforcement departments are charged with improperly adjusting crime numbers so as to make a city's violent crime totals appear better than they actually are. In the meantime, information on firearm-related incidents is obscured -- on noninjurious threats (brandishing, or firing in victim's general direction)
|
From page 7... ...
crime statistics, coming as it does in the wake of public statements by the director of the FBI -- noting frustration with the state of those statistics and indicating intent to sunset the UCR Program's Summary Reporting System in favor of a fullfledged NIBRS. BJS, in partnership with the FBI, is now in the process of equipping a sample of law enforcement agencies to begin reporting data in NIBRS format (through the National Crime Statistics Exchange [NCS-X]
|
From page 8... ...
First, the proposed 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.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.