Data on Crime
Data on crime refers to statistical information collected and analyzed to understand the prevalence, nature, and patterns of criminal activities within a specific population or geographic area. This data is crucial for informing public policy, law enforcement strategies, and crime prevention initiatives. It often includes details such as types of crimes committed, demographics of offenders and victims, and trends over time.
8 Key excerpts on "Data on Crime"
eBook - ePubThe Data Game
Controversies in Social Science Statistics
- Mark Maier, Jennifer Imazeki(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 6 Crime Researchers new to the criminal justice field may be surprised at the amount of data available, including nearly complete records of arrests and crimes reported to police and a survey of crime victims almost as large in sample size as the Current Population Survey (see chapter 9). These data are the source of a number of controversies about crime, each with important public policy consequences. This chapter reviews several debates in criminology, including the accuracy of crime statistics, the chances that an individual will be a crime victim, the age of most criminals, the effect of poverty on crime, the relationship between crime and race, the deterrence effect of capital punishment, and the importance of white-collar crime. Data Sources There are two major sources of crime data: the Uniform Crime Reports, a compilation of police reports by the U.S. Justice Department’s Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the National Crime Survey of households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Department of Justice. Uniform Crime Reports When we hear that crime is up or down, the figures usually come from the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). Since 1930, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has collected reports from over 16,000 police departments across the country. These data include type of crime; time of occurrence; locality; and age, sex, and race of the offender. Crimes included in the UCR, or “index crimes,” are homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault (defined as violent crimes); and burglary, larceny over $50, and auto theft (defined as nonviolent crimes). Specifically excluded are petty theft, and so-called victimless crimes such as drug abuse because arrest criteria for these crimes vary from place to place and from year to year. Where the Numbers Come From Organizations Data sources Key publications Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S...
- Peter Joyce, Wendy Laverick(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Teach Yourself(Publisher)
...How do we measure crime? Information regarding the amount of crime in society at any one time is provided through crime statistics. There are, however, different methods that can be used to compile information of this nature. Crime statistics can be based upon information obtained from police forces that records criminal acts that have been reported to them by members of the general public or may be derived from surveys that seek to identify persons who have been the victims of crime, whether this has been reported to the police or not. This chapter discusses the various means through which information on crime can be gathered and assesses the reliability of the main approaches that are used. Official crime statistics Key idea Official crime statistics are published by the government. They provide us with information regarding the amount of crime that exists in society at any one point in time. This is referred to as the official crime rate. These statistics are based upon criminal incidents that the police are made aware of. One source of information regarding the volume of crime is provided through figures that are based upon crime that is reported to law enforcement agencies such as the police. In England and Wales figures provided by the 43 police forces are put together and published on an annual basis. Traditionally, the Home Office published this data, but since April 2008 these figures have been published under the supervision of the National Audit Office. In the USA, nationwide information regarding crime is derived from around 17,000 law enforcement agencies and since 1929 has been published annually by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a publication prepared under the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, entitled Crime in the United States. This gives information on the volume and rate of a number of specified criminal offences for the nation, the 50 states and the individual agencies...
eBook - ePub- Pamela Davies, Peter Francis(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
...We were able to analyse the data in ways not envisaged by the survey’s architects. We think that large-scale victimization surveys that are professionally undertaken at public expense provide quantitative material that is fundamental for identifying and analysing crime patterns. We also think that victimization survey data are underused (see Tseloni and Tilley, 2016). Because of some limitations in victimization survey data, where possible, of course, we also made use of other sources to corroborate out findings. There is scope for further research on the international crime drop. This could take any of several forms. One could be that of trying to develop alternative explanations that improve on or refine those offered so far. Another could be that of testing existing explanations, including that relating to security, more fully in jurisdictions where there are the required data and where research has not yet been undertaken. A third could include more detailed descriptions of the crime drop in terms of offending, victimization, location and crime type patterns, in particular in jurisdictions where no such research has yet been undertaken. A fourth could be the identification of crime rises occurring amongst the crime falls in an effort to work out what is leading those crimes to increase and to determine whether similar offenders to those associated with crimes that have fallen are or are not involved in them. Although there may be scope for some qualitative research in understanding the crime drops, it is clear that quantitative work will be crucial. Study Questions and Activities for Students Compare the crime trends in recorded crime and crime as measured using victimization survey data. What do you think explains the differences? How might you test your explanations? Search for statistical sources in trends in criminality...
eBook - ePubThe Science of Crime Measurement
Issues for Spatially-Referenced Crime Data
- Martin A. Andresen(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...1 The science of crime measurement Introduction Crime statistics are ubiquitous in contemporary society. In both Canada and the United States there are special government statistical bodies that solely measure criminological phenomena: the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, respectively. Whether it is through the nightly newscast, national or local papers, or discussions around the coffee machine, we are inundated with statistics regarding crime: crime is going up, crime is going down, or crime is higher/lower relative to other places in the country. Indeed, we torture our students in many introductory criminological courses by placing provinces or states in national contexts, and by placing our nations in international contexts. But how reliable is this information that we pass on to our students and colleagues? Many departments within the arts and social sciences are split between those who accept or reject the quantification of social phenomena. The rejection of this quantification, in many cases, is simply a mistrust of the data or the methods of data representation. Consequently, if we are going to use quantification we must do so critically. But is this issue restricted to the academy? Generally, no. Despite our (unnecessary?) reliance on the quantification of social phenomena (Porter, 1996), there is a general mistrust of statistics in the public eye. Well known is the adage attributed to Benjamin Disraeli: “there are lies, damned lies and [then there are] statistics” (cited in Twain, 1906). Compounding this general mistrust of statistics are “journalists and politicians, among others, [who] often issue declarations about crime rates, … [without encouraging the public] … to think critically about what the crime rate measures really are” (Sacco and Kennedy, 2002: 92)—Pallone (1999) presents a rather scathing attack on nightly newscasts reporting on crime...
eBook - ePub- Clayton Mosher, Terance D. Miethe, Timothy Christopher Hart(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...We first address official statistics on crime, examining their sources and how they were often used uncritically by social scientists and individuals who wrote articles in the popular media to comment on crime and its causes. We then move to a discussion of how a growing realization of the inadequacies of these official statistics led to the development of alternative measures of crime and delinquency. Several social scientists became concerned about how official crime data were generated, noting that uncritical analyses of these statistics could result in misleading conclusions regarding the causes of crime. In particular, they noted problems related to the so-called dark figure of crime, that is, crimes committed by individuals that were not recorded in the official data. These concerns led first to the development of self-report studies of deviant and criminal behavior in the 1940s, followed by the emergence of victimization studies in the 1960s. The development and use of these alternative measures of crime led to important theoretical and policy debates within the discipline of criminology and, some would argue, to a fundamental shift in the focus of criminology as a discipline. THE EARLY HISTORY OF MEASURING SOCIAL PHENOMENA AND CRIME Number, weight, and measure are the foundations of all exact science; neither can any branch of human knowledge be held advanced beyond its infancy which does not, in some way or other, frame its theories or correct its practice by reference to those elements. What astronomical records or meteorological registers are to a rational explanation of the movement of the planets or of the atmosphere, statistical returns are to social and political philosophy...
eBook - ePub- Richard Tewksbury, Elizabeth Ehrhardt Mustaine(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...To examine the geographic distribution of juvenile delinquency Shaw and McKay (1942) used official data on delinquents brought before the juvenile court, committed to correctional institutions, and dealt with by probation officers. In addition to research on crime and delinquency, available statistics have been used to investigate a variety of issues. Karl Marx, for example, used economic statistics to test his theory of class struggle ([1867] 1967) and Max Weber used church documents to investigate the relationship between religion and sociopolitical behavior ([1904] 1977). In addition to these early empirical studies, researchers are increasingly utilizing secondary data analysis in order to conduct their research. An examination of the leading journals in criminology, criminal justice, and sociology showed that, in 1990, 27.6 percent of the articles appearing in Justice Quarterly, 26.7 percent of those in American Sociological Review, and 28 percent of the articles in Criminology used secondary data sets. By the year 2000, 45 percent of the articles appearing in Criminology used secondary data sets. Among the most commonly used data sets in the journal Criminology were the Uniform Crime Reports (FBI), the Supplemental Homicide Reports, and the United States Census. Other data sets used included the National Youth Survey, the MacArthur Foundation's Violence Risk Assessment Study, and the 1993 Canadian General Social Survey. Almost 40 percent of the articles published in American Sociological Review in the year 2000 used secondary data. Census data were used most often. However, researchers also used the General Social Survey, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and the Current Population Survey. Almost one-third of the articles published in Justice Quarterly, the leading journal in the field of criminal justice, in the year 2000 used pre-existing data sets...
eBook - ePub- Dr Mike Stephens, Mike Stephens, Pete Alcock, Professor Peter Alcock (S Ed), Pete Alcock, Professor Peter Alcock (S Ed)(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...What is or isn’t legally defined as a crime may alter over time according to different social and political circumstances. This not only makes it more difficult to define the exact nature of crime, it also creates difficulties in measuring how much crime has occurred – especially if the measurements span a lengthy period of time and one is trying to make comparisons. Despite these difficulties, England and Wales currently have two main ways of measuring crime, each with their own further problems. They are the annual official statistics of crime recorded by the police, and the biennial British Crime Survey. The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, indicated in 1997 that in future a more robust measuring system would be introduced to provide a more accurate picture of the extent of crime, which (on paper) will probably result in a significant increase in the recorded figures. Given the sensitivity surrounding crime figures in this country and the tendency to turn the issue into a moral panic, it will be most interesting to see how the media and politicians react to any such increase. Measures of crime (See the Appendix pp 132–135 for recent crime statistics) The official crime figures recorded by the police contain a number of flaws. Clearly, many crimes go unrecorded because victims feel that the loss is too trivial to investigate, or that the police are powerless to help. On the other hand, the reporting of crime may significantly increase following a concerted advertising campaign, (for instance, to clamp down on burglary), and a similar increase in reporting may occur where the public hold ‘new for old’ insurance policies that encourage people to report thefts. In neither case will the real rate of crime have necessarily increased, but the reporting of it certainly will have (Wilson and Ashton 1998, p. 3)...
- John Muncie, David Wilson(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge-Cavendish(Publisher)
...By advancing complex explanations of offending and taking care not to estimate the explanatory power of one factor in isolation, this approach responds to some of the fierce criticisms to which positivism and the quantitative tradition have been subjected since the 1960s. Critics have argued that it is highly questionable to translate statistical association into causality. Quantitative work in criminology continues to be conducted but no longer adheres to a narrow positivist research tradition. Instead, quantitative work seeks to understand the complexity of social behaviour through examining a wide range of factors which influence trends in crime (for example, Hale, 1999). In addition, quantitative research techniques have also been used to explore the workings of the criminal justice system, for example, to identify whether there is evidence of discrimination in the courtroom (for example, Hood, 1992). Quantitative research received a new impetus in April 1999 when the Crime Reduction Programme was launched. It ran for three years with an overall budget of £250 million (£25 million of this was dedicated to research). The programme comprised a series of diverse initiatives dealing with a wide range of offences and every aspect of the criminal justice process. The aim of the programme was to establish what works in reducing crime as part of a commitment to evidence-based policy and practice. As a result, funding was made available for independent evaluation which always involved the collection of quantitative data to assess whether particular interventions were influential in producing lower than expected reconviction rates, with some acknowledgment of the difficulties of relying on this measure of effectiveness. Many of these programmes had multiple components, making it difficult to isolate their ‘active ingredients’ (Farrington, 2002 : 662) and to advance anything other than tenuous links between risk factors and crime reduction programmes...
