Modernizing Crime Statistics: Report 2 New Systems for Measuring Crime (2018) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix C: Coverage of Recommended Crime Classification in Current Crime Statistics
Appendix C: Coverage of Recommended Crime Classification in Current Crime Statistics
Pages 111-158
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From page 111... ...
to the current national crime statistics, clarifying the definitions or concepts used in the current systems, or describing the possible coverage of an offense by other data sources, as appropriate. As described in Section 2.1, the labels we apply in characterizing the match are rough assessments: a indicating that the definitions or concepts are in general agreement (and so whether the data source is capable of generating estimate counts or measures of the specific offense, a indicating a general mismatch or lack of coverage, and parenthetical comments (expended upon in the narrative)
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From page 112... ...
component of the UCR Program, listing the appropriate NIBRS offense code or data element. Relevant details of coverage of the offense type in the older, long-standing UCR Summary Reporting System (denoted SRS or UCR Summary)
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From page 113... ...
1.5 Unlawful feticide (unless counted as murder of victim less than 1 year old) 1.6 Unlawful killing associated with armed conflict The other types of acts causing death of the victim are not covered by the current national crime data systems -- and, indeed, are ill-defined as federal crimes.
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From page 114... ...
." These codes are eventually derived from those text responses. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, unlawful killing associated with armed conflict (which would include unlawful killing "without justification or excuse")
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From page 115... ...
That counts of UCR/NIBRS "aggravated assaults" are highly publicized (yet still fall short of an accurate, comparative measure of shooting incidents) while "simple assaults" are subject only to far-less-scrutinized, arrest-only collection is a longstanding flaw in national crime statistics -- and one in particular need of remedy.
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From page 116... ...
2.3.4 Hijacking 2.3.5 Illegal adoption 2.3.6 Forced marriage Mentioned as a candidate for possible addition as a major crime category in both the 1929 Uniform Crime Reporting handbook that launched the program and in the 1958 expert-panel assessment, kidnapping/abduction never made it into the Summary inventory of crimes. Instead, it is listed as an example of "All Other Offenses," the Part II, arrests-only catch-all category.
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From page 117... ...
2.4.2 Forced labor5 (not as such) Our recommended classification attempts to decouple component behaviors/actions with the broader bundle of offenses added to the UCR program as "human trafficking" offenses.
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General acts of criminal negligence (2.7) are not counted as such in the UCR save to the extent that they are part of other offenses, such as negligent manslaughter.
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2.11 Discrimination 2.12 Acts that trespass against the person 2.12.1 Invasion of privacy The core offenses of category 2.9 are both referenced principally by example in the UCR Summary and NIBRS systems. In Summary, 2.9.1 harassment is not mentioned but 2.9.2 stalking is a defined example under other (simple)
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From page 120... ...
. In the UCR Summary System, "forcible rape" was partitioned into two categories, 2a rape by force and 2b attempts to commit forcible rape, with anything else being categorized as the Part II, arrests-only-reporting "other sex offenses." The Blueprint for the Future of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program argued for a broadening of the rape category to include "all forcible sexual offenses," including but not limited to "rape by instrumentation, rape of males, and other sexual assaults" (Poggio et al., 1985)
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From page 121... ...
3.5 Sexual exploitation of children (not as separate category) 3.5.1 Child pornography 3.5.2 Child prostitution, production and provision 3.5.3 Child prostitution, procurement UCR Summary includes a Part II category for general "sex offenses (except rape and prostitution and commercialized vice)
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From page 122... ...
Accordingly, it makes sense that the offense would be addressed in a somewhat special manner in the UCR (and by the FBI, generally) : • Robbery was among the first offenses for which additional detail was sought even in UCR Summary counts, beginning in the early 1930s and continuing into the current Supplement to Return A, which UCR participants are requested to file each month alongside the usual counts.
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Number of actual offenses and sum of estimated monetary value of property stolen, for all larceny-thefts (except motor vehicle thefts) further subdivided by: • Pocket-picking • Bicycles • Purse-snatching • From building (except shoplifting and • Shoplifting from coin-operated machines)
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From page 124... ...
carjacking -- the stealing of a vehicle through direct harm or threatened harm of the driver -- as materially different from other types of robbery. • Bank robbery, as a specific variant of robbery, is especially curious from the standpoint of national crime statistics because it is subject to direct reporting -- by the FBI -- completely parallel to the UCR Program, and in that capacity has been the subject of more-than-just-total-count reporting for decades.
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From page 125... ...
manager, rather than the individual tenants/renters, will most likely report the offenses to the police." Within that single incident, the "number of premises entered" is still entered as a NIBRS data element. But, if both those conditions fail -- "if multiple occupants rent or lease individual living or working areas in a building for a period of time,
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From page 126... ...
, the UCR Summary system divides the top-level larceny-theft category (except motor vehicle theft, which is itself deemed a separate Part I offense) into 9 subcategories, for which the number of "actual offenses" and estimated monetary value of stolen property are meant to be summed.
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From page 127... ...
5.3.2 Unlawful interference with a computer system or computer data 5.3.3 Unlawful interception or access of computer data 5.4 Intellectual property offenses Computer-based crimes are not included in the UCR Summary save to the degree to which some might be coded in Part II's catch-all, arrest-only all other offense group. As with animal cruelty later in the classification, we both credit NIBRS with coverage and note 5.3.1 unlawful access to a computer system as a gap, as the closest match to the hacking/computer invasion offense that was formally added to NIBRS in 2015 but for which data has yet to be tabulated.
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From page 128... ...
, the USFA's NFIRS database is intended to be a repository of voluntary-report information on all fire department incidents, paralleling the role of the UCR Program for law enforcement agencies. NFIRS continues to include a dedicated Arson Module for completion in arson incidents, in addition to the report required for any incident of burning.
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investigation is typically needed to document whether an incident of arson has actually taken place. For purposes of crime statistics and analysis, the offense of arson has traditionally been conceptualized as a pure property crime.
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As a criminogenic factor, drug involvement in crime, drug market-related crime, and illicit drug use are all commonly thought to be well known or well documented but on which national crime statistics are surprisingly silent. Drug involvement in other violent crimes has long been impossible to recover from UCR Summary data; meanwhile, a catch-all "drug abuse violations" is included in UCR Summary only as a Part II, arrests-only (and so relatively uninformative)
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From page 131... ...
7.1.4 Fraud against government (not as such, agencies though 26D welfare fraud would be special case) The UCR Summary system includes a single "fraud" line item as a Part II, arrests-only reporting offense -- at best, a weak indicator for a class of offenses as harmful and as complex as fraud.
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From page 132... ...
Our recommended classification defines a few subcategories, in that counterfeiting currency/means of payment seems sufficiently, substantively different from document forging as to warrant separate breaks, though it might be possible to reconstruct some of this information from the NIBRS code in conjunction with other NIBRS data elements. Forgery/counterfeiting is interesting in the NIBRS context because a formal counting rule has developed around it -- invoked if an underlying rationale for the counterfeiting is actually realized.
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Several of the white-collar offenses in this block are defined within NIBRS, though the quality of the resulting data is largely unknown or unexplored. Of these, only embezzlement and "stolen property: buying, receiving, possessing" factor into the UCR Summary system -- and then only as Part II, arrests-only offenses.
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8.3 Acts related to freedom of expression or control of expression 8.3.1 Acts against freedom of expression 8.3.2 Acts related to expressions of controlled social beliefs and norms This grouping of "public order" offenses is a mixed bag in terms of correspondence with existing UCR standards. The closest concordance, historically, is with 8.2.1 prostitution offenses; as discussed above regarding human trafficking for sexual exploitation, we intend 8.2.1 prostitution offenses to cover the purchase/client side of prostitution, which is consistent with UCR Summary's Part II concept of purchasing prostitution (arrests-only reporting)
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From page 135... ...
national crime statistics while -- aptly, for a system born in the 1920s -- the "sin tax"offenses bundled into category 8.4.3 are somewhat better covered. Generic categories for "gambling" and "liquor laws" are included as Part II, arrests-only categories in the UCR Summary.
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From page 136... ...
There is certainly a difference between "crime statistics" and the broad class of "justice statistics" that speak to the functioning of the entire criminal justice system; still, however paradoxically, offenses against the justice system itself are essentially uncovered in current crime statistics. Inchoate offenses -- preparatory or enabling crimes -- are only addressed in small part.
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From page 137... ...
of local curfew or loitering laws is labeled a Part II, arrests-only offense. Historically, "runaways" -- also applying to persons under age 18 -- was also a Part II offense, but "arrest data on Runaways is no longer required by the FBI UCR Program due to the differences between jurisdictional statutes" (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2013:169)
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From page 138... ...
In NIBRS, organized crime involvement can be coded as contextual information for selected offense types: • As "Other Gang" (as opposed to juvenile gangs) , in Gang Involvement variable applicable to NIBRS-defined counterfeiting/forgery, stolen property offenses, drug/narcotic violations, drug equipment violations, pornogra phy/obscene material, gambling equipment violations, weapon law viola tions, and animal cruelty; or • As "Gangland (Organized Crime Involvement)
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From page 139... ...
after the commission of a prior act of racketeering activity." The definition of "racketeering activity" is extremely broad, and includes (excerpting, paraphrasing, and rearranging the capsule references to code sections included in the definition itself) : • State-defined offenses: "Any act or threat involving murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matter, or dealing in a controlled substance" that is chargeable under relevant state laws "and punishable by imprisonment for more than one year" by state criminal code; • Offenses defined in federal criminal code (Title 18, U.S.
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• gambling offenses, including the unlawful transmission of gambling information, interstate transportation of wagering paraphernalia, or operation of illegal gambling businesses • transmission or distribution of obscene matter • interstate transportation of stolen property or stolen motor vehicles • criminal copyright infringement, including trafficking in counterfeit audiovisual works or computer software or trafficking in unauthorized recordings or videos of live musical performances • trafficking in motor vehicles or parts, for which the identification number has been removed, damaged, or altered • trafficking in contraband cigarettes • development, acquisition, possession, or trafficking in biological weapons, chemical weapons, or nuclear materials; • Embezzlement from or unlawful transactions involving union/labor organization funds, as defined elsewhere federal tax code; • Additional types of fraud defined in federal bankruptcy code (Title 11 of U.S.
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crime statistics -- the only reference to offenses in this category in NIBRS materials being that "environmental law violations" is listed as an example of the NIBRS Group B 90Z "all other offenses" category.
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Both U.S. military law and American Indian tribal law largely parallel federal and state criminal codes in defining offenses -- and so the intent would be for military and tribal authorities
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• Law enforcement and justice system processing in Indian Country -- the term used to describe American Indian tribal lands and the self-governing, sovereign communities within them -- is complex. As self-governing entities, tribes commonly maintain their own police forces, courts, and other authorities, and also typically have their own penal or criminal code defining offenses.
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and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, shall work with Indian tribes and tribal law enforcement agencies to establish and implement such tribal data collection systems as the Director determines to be necessary to achieve the purposes of this section. C.2 CORRESPONDENCE OF SUGGESTED ATTRIBUTES TO CURRENTLY COLLECTED DATA ELEMENTS The listings below summarize the way in which the attributes suggested in Section 5.2.2 of Report 1 correspond to currently collected data elements in NIBRS.
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, • Texas (TX; Law Enforcement Support Division, Texas Department of Public Safety, 2015) , and • Virginia (VA; Criminal Justice Information Services Division, Virginia State Police, 2011)
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• Number of victims, all offenses in incident: Not an explicit data element in NIBRS, but derivable from the number of victim identifiers on the NIBRS data record • Number of offenders, all offenses in incident: Similarly to the number of victims, not an explicit data element in NIBRS but one that is derivable Attributes in Recommended Classification but Not in NIBRS • Incident geographic location: In Report 1, we suggest collection, "ideally, [of] an appropriately anonymized latitude/longitude pair" or -- barring that -- "a geocode to some small-area geography such as census block or tract." – TN: Physical street address where the incident occurred or latitude/longitude coordinates if known – NY: City/town/village where the incident be coded, with an identifier for the law enforcement agency's station, division, or precinct being optional – MI: County and city/township of occurrence, with an option "geo-code" slot that could be used to "identify station, division, post, team, precinct, etc." (Michigan Incident Crime Reporting Unit, 2016:14)
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: yes/no, where yes connotes "incident is complete, no further data to immediately follow" and no connotes "incident is not complete, supplemental data to immediately follow" (Michigan Incident Crime Reporting Unit, 2016:101) • Identity theft-related [TN]
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: uniform, plain clothes, special assignment – Multiple agencies involved [TN] : yes/no, whether officers who fired weapons during the incident were from different law enforcement agencies – Officer's number of years on force [TN]
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: Combin ing the codes that are deemed valid for NIBRS Data Element 13 with codes derived from SHR data yields the set: 11 Firearm (type not stated; code can include "A" suffix to indicate automatic weapon) 12 Handgun -- pistol, revolver, etc.
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This variable disentangles elements in the curious NIBRS Data Element 8, "offender suspected of using" alcohol, drug/narcotics, or computer equipment and so might be considered a partial match. Data Elements in NIBRS but Not in Recommended Classification • Type criminal activity/gang information [N12]
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This information is assumed to be conveyed through the offense code. • Number of stolen and recovered motor vehicles [N18, N19]
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: value of recovered stolen property, which can be less than or equal to the estimated value lost • Other means of quantifying information about drugs/controlled substances involved in offenses: – Type of drug/narcotic seized in a drug case [TX] – Estimated quantity of drug/narcotic, and type of measurement used in that quantity, seized in a drug case [TX]
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The alphabetic codes listed below are those used in NIBRS Data Element 35, relationship of victim to offender. The UCR's Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR)
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, foreign, refugee/no citizenship, and not known Data Elements in NIBRS but Not in Recommended Classification • Victim sequence number [N23] : Identifier for each victim involved in incident; not explicitly rendered in our recommended classification, but tacit • Victim connected to UCR offense code [N24]
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From page 155... ...
: e.g., criminal at tacked police officer and was killed by another police officer or criminal attempted flight from a crime • Elements specific to law enforcement officers assaulted or killed in the line of duty: – Type of officer activity/circumstance [N25A] : for law enforcement officers assaulted or killed in line of duty, code for activity at time of the offense (e.g., responding to disturbance call, han dling/transporting/custody of prisoners, ambush/no warning)
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From page 156... ...
Attributes in Recommended Classification but Not in NIBRS • Type of offender: Same categorization as type of victim, and important to retain as standalone attribute to emphasize classification's coverage of nonperson actors. • Residence status of offender with respect to operational jurisdiction of reporting agency • Citizenship status of offender Data Elements in NIBRS but Not in Recommended Classification • Offender sequence number [N36]
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From page 157... ...
– Resident status of arrestee with respect to operational jurisdiction of reporting agency [N51] : resident, nonresident, unknown – Disposition of arrestee under 18 [N52]
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