CONCEPTUAL DRAFT OF CHAPTER 1 INSTRUCTIONS

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Chapter 6:

Measuring Crime

Learning Objectives

• Recognize how different approaches to measuring crime illustrate general principles of conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement

• Understand what crimes are included in different measures • Describe different measures of crime and how they are

based on different units of analysis • Understand different purposes for collecting crime data • Explain different measures based on crimes known to

police • Describe the main features of victim surveys

Learning Objectives, cont.

• Distinguish the main differences between crimes known to police and crimes measured through different types of surveys

• Understand why self-report measures are used, and list different types of crimes for which they are appropriate

• Summarize major series of self-reported measures of drug use • Understand how surveillance measures are obtained and used • Explain how different measures of crime satisfy criteria for

measurement quality • Recognize that we have different measures of crime because

each measure is imperfect

Introduction

• Crime can be a dependent variable in exploratory, descriptive, explanatory, and applied studies

• Crime can also be an independent variable, as in a study of how crime affects fear and other attitudes

• It can be both: drug use <- -> other offenses

General Issues in Measuring Crime

• What offenses? • What units of analysis?

– Specific entities about which researchers collect information

– Offender, victim, offenses, incidents

• What purpose? – Monitoring – Agency Accountability – Research

Crimes Known to Police

• Most widely used measures of crime are based on police records

• Certain types are detected almost exclusively by observation (traffic and victimless offenses)

• Most crimes reported by victim or witnesses

• What crimes are not measured well by police records? – Assaults

– Robberies

Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)

• Circa 1929, under FBI since 1930s

• Originally, reporting voluntary, but now very common

• Type I offenses (index crimes/offenses): murder, rape, robbery, larceny, burglary, aggravated assault, motor vehicle theft, and arson (added in 1979)

• Type II offenses: a compilation of less serious crimes

• Summary-based, group level unit of analysis

The UCR and Measurement Quality • The UCR is neither an exclusive nor an exhaustive

measure

• Not all law enforcement agencies submit complete reports to the FBI, and the quality of the data submitted varies

• Summary-Based Measure of Crime – UCR data includes summary, or total, crime counts for reporting agencies

(cities/counties)

• UCR data are aggregates—cannot be used in descriptive or explanatory studies that focus on individual crimes, offenders, or victims

Discussion Question 1

Why are aggregate and individual data both necessary?

Incident-Based Police Records

• Based on incidents as units of analysis • Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR)

– Police agencies submit detailed info about individual homicide incidents

• Can conduct a variety of studies that examine individual events

National Incident-Based Reporting System

• Joint effort by FBI and BJS to convert UCR to a NIBRS

• NIBRS reports each crime incident rather than the total # of certain crimes for each law enforcement agency

• Many features are reported individually about each incident: offenses, offenders, victims

• UCR  NIBRS • 8 Part I offenses  46 Group A offenses

Discussion Question 2

What if you were in charge of a law enforcement agency? Why would you want to report to the UCR? Why might you not want to report?

Other Revisions with NIBRS

• Hierarchy rule dropped • Victim type (individual, business,

government, society/public) • Attempted/Completed • Drug-related offenses • Computers and crime • Quality control; states require certification

NIBRS and Measurement Quality

• Eliminating the hierarchy rule means offense classifications are mutually exclusive – But not exhaustive, not all crimes are counted

• Creating auditing standards and requiring submission of data on computer readable media enhance reliability

• Crimes are selectively reported to police and selectively recorded by police – Voluntary: no agency is required to submit crime reports to the FBI

in any form

Measuring Crime Through Victim Surveys

• Can obtain info on crimes not reported to police

• Can measure incidents police may not officially record as crimes

• Provides data on victims/offenders (individuals), and the incidents themselves (social artifacts)

National Crime Victimization Survey • Since 1972 by Census Bureau • Sought to illuminate the “dark figure of

unreported crime” • Longitudinal panel study: households agree

to participated for 3 years (7 interviews; one every 6 months) and then replaced

• Does not measure all crime • Respondents are asked screening questions

Discussion Question 3

Would you participate in a victimization survey? Why or why not?

Positive Elements of NCVS

• Measures both reported and unreported crime

• Independent of changes in reporting • More information about how crime impacted

victim than UCR • Provides more victim characteristics than

UCR

Negative Elements of NCVS

• Telescoping incident dates • Faulty memory • Little information on offenders • No information on CJS response if

reported • Excludes crimes against commercial

establishments • Only includes residents of US

NCVS Redesign

• Sought to improve measurement of domestic violence and sexual assault

• Revised screening questions and added cues to help respondents recall and distinguish minor incidents

• More direct questions on rape and other sexual crimes

• Greater attention to measuring victimizations by someone the respondent knows

• Gradual increase of telephone interviews to replace in-person interviews

Community Victimization Surveys

• First Development in late 1960’s – A series of city-level surveys by the Census Bureau

• 1998 BJS and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) launched pilot surveys in 12 large and medium-sized cities – Jointly developed a guidebook and software so that

local law enforcement agencies and other groups can conduct their own community surveys

Comparison

• Crimes Known to Police: – UCR – SHR – NIBRS

• Victim Surveys – NCVS – Community Victimization Surveys

Surveys of Offending

• Delinquency, "victimless" crimes, and crimes rarely observed or reported to police may be measured by self-report surveys – Examples: prostitution, drug abuse, public order,

shoplifting, drunk driving

• Two ongoing self-report studies – National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) – Monitor the Future (MTF)

National Survey on Drug Use and Health

• Based on a national sample of households • Conducted since 1971; 2004 sample had

68,000 individuals • Includes questions to distinguish between

lifetime use, current use, and heavy use • Encourages candid responses via procedures • Includes residents of college dorms, rooming

houses, and homeless shelters

Monitoring the Future

• Conducted since 1975 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse

• Includes several samples of high school students and others, totaling about 50,000 respondents each year

• Questions concern self-reported use of alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, delinquency, other acts

• A subset of 2,400 MTF respondents receive follow-up questionnaire

Drug Surveillance Systems

• Surveillance systems have been developed to obtain alternative measures of drug use

• Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) – provides ongoing assessment of drug use among arrestees

• Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) – collects emergency medical treatment reports for “drug episodes” from a sample of hospitals

Measuring Crime for Specific Purposes

• Local Crime and Self-Report Surveys – e.g., any purpose!

• Incident-Based Crime Reports – e.g., Newark PD vehicle theft

• Observing Crime – e.g., shoplifting, bar drinking, and violence

Measuring Crime Summary

• UCR & SHR: best for murder and crimes in which the victim is a business or commercial establishment

• NCVS: best for crimes against persons or households that are not reported to police

• Self-report surveys: best at measuring crimes that do not have readily identifiable victims and that are less often observed by or reported to police