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8/18/2015

Prepared by Emily Berthelot, University of Arkansas at Little Rock ©

CHAPTER THREE

VICTIMIZATION IN

THE UNITED STATES:

AN OVERVIEW

1. To appreciate how statistics can be used to answer important

questions.

2. To become aware of the ways statistics can be used to

persuade and mislead.

3. To find out what information about crime victims is collected

routinely by the federal government‘s Department of Justice.

4. To become familiar with the ways that victimologists use this

data to estimate how many people were harmed by criminal

activities and what injuries and losses they suffered.

5. To explore the kinds of information about victims that can be

found in the Federal Bureau of Investigation‘s annual Uniform

Crime Report.

Learning Objectives

6. To become aware of the strengths and weaknesses of this

source of official statistics.

7. To assemble official statistics to spot trends, and especially

whether the problem of criminal victimization has been

intensifying or diminishing over recent decades.

8. To develop a feel for historical trends in the level of violence

in the United States

9. To be able to weigh the threat of crime against other perils by

understanding comparative risks.

Learning Objectives

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Introduction

The Big Picture  How many people are harmed by criminals each year?

 Is victimization becoming more of a problem or is it subsiding?

 Which groups are targeted?

 When and where do crimes occur?

 What types of and how often are weapons used?

 Are victims usually strangers?

 Do victims resist? Should they?

 How often are victims injured?

 What do victims lose?

Introduction

 How do we ―put together‖ the Big

Picture?

 Official statistics gathered by

government

 Criminologists and victimologists

gather their own data

 Special interest groups gather crime

data

Use and Abuse of Statistics

 Statistics—meaningful numbers that reveal

important information

 Official statistics—compiled and

published by government

 Statistics—

 Provide realistic assessments of a threat

posed to individuals by criminal activity

 Reveal patterns of criminal activity

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Use and Abuse of Statistics

 Statistics –continued–

 Reveal costs and losses by criminal activity

 Project number of possible victims of a

particular crime

 Evaluate effectiveness of recovery efforts

and prevention strategies

 Identify statistical portraits (profiles) of a

typical victim

Use and Abuse of Statistics

 Interpretation of Statistics

 Can be used to influence decision makers

 Can be used to reduce or increase fears

 Can be used to support police

administration

 Can be used to show something is not

working

Caution

 However, be aware that statistics can

be used to present one viewpoint, or

be presented with a ―spin.‖

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 FBI gathers data from local police departments and publishes an annual report of crime statistics called the Uniform Crime Report (UCR).

 Part One Crimes Reported—8 Crimes

 Violent Crime Data—(4) Murder, Forcible Rape, Robbery and Aggravated Assault

 Property Crime Data—(4) Burglary, Larceny/Theft, Motor Vehicle Theft and Arson

Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

 UCR reflects data for cities, counties,

states, regions, and many college

campuses

 Reports include:

 Number of complaints filed with police

 Total estimated losses

 Proportion of cases solved

 Characteristics of offenders arrested

Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

 Shortcomings of UCR Report  Underreporting a major problem

 Focus is offenders, not victims (homicide exception)

 Mixes attempted crimes and completed crimes

 Robbery includes all targets, does not single out households, banks, stores, etc.

 Uses ‗hierarchy rule,‘ which reports only the most serious crime in a sequence of several criminal incidents

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National Incident-Based Reporting

System (NIBRS)

 Tracks 46 Group A Offenses—Greater

Breakdown in data:

 i.e. simple assault, vandalism, blackmail,

fraud, statutory rape, kidnapping

 Gathers data relating to commission of

crime, victim information, value of theft,

race/ethnicity

 Phasing in local law enforcement agencies

The NCVS

Another set of data is collected by the

Bureau of Justice Statistics and is based on

surveys with victims. It is called the National

Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and it

often paints a different picture than the

UCR.

National Crime Victimization Survey

(NCVS)

 Crime rates determined by public survey

of randomly selected households by U. S.

Census Bureau.

 First survey, 1966—President‘s

Commission on Law Enforcement and the

Administration of Justice.

 The NCVS reports crimes in the form of

rates per 1000.

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National Crime Victim Survey

(NCVS)

 Crimes studied:  Forcible rape & sexual assault

 Robbery

 Aggravated assault & simple assault

 Theft

 Household burglaries

 Motor vehicle thefts

 Only surveys those 12 years of age or older—Does NOT include crimes against those under 12 years of age.

 Does not include murder

Four Reasons NCVS Questioned

 Bias of Information

 Credibility of Information  Wives reporting abuse, girls reporting date rape,

boys reporting robberies on bad drug deals

 Memory Decay and Telescoping

 Crimes against children under 12 not probed

 Over reporting  Pollsters, not detectives, to sort out conflicting

stories or facts

UCR vs. NCVS

 During 70s and 80s, there appeared to

be low correlation between the two

official sources of data in regards to

victimization rates.

 The two reporting systems again gave

conflicting signals at the end of 2001

regarding violent crimes and property

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UCR vs. NCVS

 UCR—No data for victims except murder

 NCVS—No data on crimes of murder,

bias/hate crimes, line of duty assaults on police.

 No data on offenses against children under 12.

 No data on business robberies or burglaries .

 No data on arson or victims of arson.

 UCR—computes rates/100,000 population.

 NCVS—computes rates/1,000 age 12 and older

or/households (no number).

Estimated Victimization Rates

Crime

rates

reported

by UCR

for

2013.

Crime

rates

reported

by NCVS

for

2013.

Estimated Victimization Rates

Table 3.1 Continued

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

One method of

illustrating the UCR

data is the ―Crime

Clock,‖ which shows

how many seconds

or minutes apart a

particular crime or

criminal event

occurs.

Assessing Comparative Risks

Criminal

Event vs.

Accident/

Illness

Assessing Comparative Risks

Conclusions:

1. Leading causes of death—heart disease, cancer, and stroke

2. More died from accidents than homicides

3. More people took their own life than lost life through lethal violence