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Lecture2.Thenatureandextentofthecrime.pdf

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Chapter 2: The Nature and Extent of Crime

Why and How Is Crime Measured?

Why is Crime Measured?

• Reveals the extent and nature of crime.

• Used to evaluate the benefits of policy.

• Helps identify groups that are suffering disproportionate amounts of

victimization.

• Allows efficient and targeted assistance.

Why and How Is Crime Measured?

Data sources

• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimates crime by the Uniform

Crime Reports (UCR), Supplemental Homicide Report (SHR), and

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

• Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) focuses on victimization with the

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).

• **Self-report data collects survey data from citizens (“offenders”)

Why and How Is Crime Measured?

How is Crime Measured?

2. Asking citizens if they have been victimized

• National Crime Victimization Survey

(NCVS): Nationally representative survey of

victims.

1. Official law enforcement records

• Uniform Crime Reports (UCR): A program of

the FBI that compiles national crime data.

• Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR):

Supplements UCR’s data with extra details

about homicides.

• National Incident-Based Reporting System

(NIBRS): Complex national data collection

system that gathers incident-based crime

info from law enforcement.

**3. Asking citizens about their criminal

behavior

• Self-report data: Surveys filled by citizens

answering questions related to personal

criminal offending behavior.

FBI Measurement of Crime

Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR)

• Collects from 17,000 police agencies.

• Summary Reporting System (SRS): Original aggregated crime data

collected by UCR.

• Benefits: stable, detailed, broad.

• Part I & Part II crimes: UCR SRS’s designation of crime types.

• Part I crimes: serious.

• Part II crimes: less common and less serious.

• NOTE:

1. Offenses known to police

2. Arrests made

Table 2.1 FBI UCR Part I and Part II Crimes

4 violent crimes

4 property crimes

2 newly added (2013)

***Hierarchy rule: If there are 2+ crimes that are committed in a crime event or crime incident, only the most serious crime is counted in the UCR.

THINK: If a victim is robbed and experiences motor vehicle theft in the same incident, which type of crime is reported in the UCR?

FBI: Measurement of Crime

Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) • Keeps detailed info on homicides.

• Victim, offender, relationship between the two.

• Weapon.

• Circumstances leading to homicide.

SHR Form

UCR Strengths

ü National coverage ü 95% participation

ü Allows comparisons ü Time, place (with caution)

ü Verified by police

ü Captures serious crime

UCR Shortcomings

1. Underestimates crime

• “Dark Figure”

• Hierarchy Rule

2. Broad categories

3. Focus on “street crime”

4. Little info on victims, offenders, or circumstances

5. Crime is filtered through the police

“DARK FIGURE”

Offenses Committed Offenses Reported

Arrests Prosecuted Convicted

Prison

THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE FUNNEL

*Keep in mind: How much of the data reflects criminal behavior vs. enforcement behavior?

Filt er

FBI: NIBRS

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) • Augments the SRS.

• Covers more crimes.

• Distinguishes between attempted & completed.

NIBRS Strengths

National Incident-Based Reporting System • Group A & Group B crimes: the two major clusters of

crimes in NIBRS.

• Group A: 22 crimes covering 46 offenses including homicide & robbery.

• Group B: 11 offenses such as loitering. • *Hierarchy rule: Only the most serious crime committed

during an incident is counted. • National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X): Coming

BJS/FBI collaboration to produce nationally representative incident-based crime statistics.

NIBRS Shortcomings

1. Participation-based (until recently with James Comey)

2. Most agencies still rely on UCR/SRS (Summary Reporting System)

3. Only crimes known

4. Data can be manipulated

5. “Dark Figure”

National Crime Panel: NCS and NCVS

• National Crime Panel • Commission by President Johnson to identify causes

and characteristics of crime.

• Concluded that even with UCR, there was inadequate data available.

• Dark figure of crime: Still trying to chip away at it.

• Solution?: National Crime Survey & Commercial Victimization Survey.

• In 1991, the National Crime Panel became the NCVS.

NCVS

• National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

• Nationally representative survey of victims.

• Why talk to victims?

• Redesign of NCS, with new methodology and started to collect data on sexual assault

• Primary source of info about frequency, characteristics, and consequences of violence.

• Administered using two instruments.

NCVS Strengths

ü Gives different estimate of U.S. crime rates from the UCR ü Avoids potential police bias ü No hierarchy rule

ü Collect information on victims - Sex, race, age, single/divorce, SES, city

ü Gives information about the incident (e.g., use of a weapon, time, place)

ü National coverage and coverage over time

NCVS Shortcomings

1. Less information on offenders

2. Household crimes only (resident victims)…who is in a house?

3. No victims under 12

4. Possible over-reporting of crime

5. Problems associated with surveys/interviews • Memory decay

• Telescoping

• Reactivity

6. Difficult to compare across time/place (attrition)

Self-report data (SRD): Surveys “offenders”

• Self-report data is when surveys are asking citizens, or “offenders” of their personal criminal behavior

• In SR data, people will mark if they have engaged in select type of behavior and the frequency

• E.g., “almost every day” “once or twice a week” etc.

• ”Unfiltered” data because there are no law enforcement agencies to interfere

PROBLEMS?

SR Data Shortcomings

1. Mostly adolescent in one place

2. Survey problems: memory decay, telescoping

- Social desirability bias

3. Miss the big crimes and white- collar crime

4. Reporting varies across groups

5. **Can be useful if done carefully

Data triangulation • Data triangulation refers to when we use several different

data sources to reach an answer.

• This process means combining at least 2+ different sources to see whether the findings remain consistent.

• For example, Apple maps vs. Google maps vs. Waze app

Trends in the U.S.

When we think of crime trends, we first have to ask ourselves:

Are these data a reflection of criminal behavior, or enforcement?

We also have to keep in mind the unit of analysis (i.e., level that is being studied).

Macro vs. micro-level:

Macro: big, urban trends (e.g., state of Florida, county of palm beach)

Micro: individual person (e.g., yourself)

Violent and Property Crime Rates and Trends – Fatal Violence

Fatal Violence

• Violent and property crime relatively rare in the United States.

• Generally peaked in the early 1990s (”crime wave”).

Fatal Violence: Gender, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Murder

• Males murdered at a higher rate. • Generally, intra-racial.

• Blacks are overrepresented in serious violent arrests

• Most murdered by an acquaintance.

• Firearms used most frequently in fatal violence.

Violent and Property Crime Rates and Trends – Nonfatal Violence

Nonfatal Violence • Rape, robbery, various types of assault.

• Has also declined since the 1990s peak. • 23.2 victimizations per 1,000 (age 12+) in 2018.

• Simple assault: No or minor injuries, no weapon used, and the most

common.

• 14.6 per 1,000 (2018)—an increase since 2017.

• Rape and sexual assault: least common form of nonfatal violent crime.

• 2.7 per 1,000 (2018)—a drastic increase from 2017.

Violent and Property Crime Rates and Trends – Nonfatal Violence

Nonfatal Violence

• Aggravated assault: Armed offender and/or serious injury to victim.

• 3.8 per 1,000 (2018)—similar to 2017 rates.

• Robbery:

• 2.1 per 1,000 (2018)—a decrease from 2017.

• Sexual assault rates now exceed robbery rates, a historic

reversal.

Violent and Property Crime Rates and Trends – Gender and Race

Gender, Race, and Hispanic Origin: Characteristics of Nonfatal Violent Crime

• Gender is the strongest predictor of crime

• Men more likely to be victimized by a stranger.

• Women more likely to be victimized by someone they know.

• Race has a small effect on the rates of victimization by strangers.

• Why? Because crime is more likely to be intra-racial (e.g., White on White)

•Violence is more frequently reported if the

victim is male rather than female.

Violent and Property Crime Rates and Trends – Armed and unarmed

Gender, Race, and Hispanic Origin: Characteristics of Nonfatal Violent Crime

• Most nonfatal violence committed by unarmed offenders.

• Rape/sexual assault least likely to involve armed offenders.

• Robbery most frequently involves armed offenders.

• Robbery victims are injured 35.7% of the time.

• Injuries more frequent in victims who are males, 12- to 15-year-olds, robbed by

strangers, or non-Hispanic Black.

• Less than half of nonfatal violent crime is reported.

Violent and Property Crime Rates and Trends – Property Crime

Property Crime Rates and Trends • General decline since 1990s.

• Property crime has DRAMATICALLY declined.

• Burglary/motor vehicle theft/property theft: 108.2 per 1,000 households (2018).

• Property theft: 82.7 per 1,000.

• Burglary: 21.1 per 1,000.

• Motor vehicle theft: 4.3 per 1,000.

Measuring Cybercrime, Terrorism, and White-Collar Crime

Cybercrime • Two main forms: 1) advanced/high-tech or 2) cyber-

enabled.

• Creepware: computer-hijacking malware.

• Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has experienced a large increase in complaints.

Terrorism • Measuring difficult due to multifaceted attacks. • Worldwide Incident Tracking System (WITS): FBI

database of completed attacks, discontinued in 2012. • Global Terrorism Database (GTD): Database at

University of Maryland housing broader data on terrorism since 1970.

• Several other centers (e.g., NCITE) are starting to track terrorism incidents and events

Measuring Cybercrime, Terrorism, and White-Collar Crime Measuring White-Collar Crime • Data specific to corporate and occupational crimes are rare. • UCR offers little more than counts by types of crime:

• Reported as fraud, forgery/counterfeiting, embezzlement

• NIBRS includes a wider variety of behaviors:

• General offense categories of fraud, bad checks, counterfeiting or forgery, and embezzlement

• That said, most white-collar crimes are handled through specific regulatory agencies that specialize in the sector

• E.g., Office of Inspector General (OIG) Health and Human Services regulate healthcare fraud

• National White-Collar Crime Center (NW3C)

• Less focus on scholars, more focus on training law enforcement for detection

Fear and Risk of Victimization Paradox between actual risk and fear of victimization.

• Females are more fearful of victimization than are males although their risk is lower.

• Differences in fear and risk based on income (poorer being more fearful) and age (older being more fearful).

• Individual fear of crime increased following 9/11.

• Crime multiplier: Hearing about crime distorts perceptions of how common crime is and increases fear.

• “Vicarious experiences,” which refer to living through another person’s experience.

Theory in Criminal Justice

Theory is tied to data.

• Use data to test theory/build theory.

• Theory is fundamental in understanding criminal justice.

• Many theories are biological, psychological, and sociological.

• Criminality may be caused by neurological or psychological abnormalities.

• E.g., biological and psychological theories such as “biosocial

perspectives” which argue there are neurological abnormalities and

when interacted with a certain environment, this may produce criminal

offending behavior

• Some of these theories contend that there are forces beyond a person’s

control drive individual offending.

• E.g., sociological theories such as ”social disorganization theory”

Theory in Criminal Justice

• Life course theories and general theories of crime are more popular than data-gathering techniques.

• Popular life course theories explore transitions, trajectories, and turning points that decrease social capital, which may result in illegal behavior.