Crime Victims: An Introduction to Victimology Seventh Edition

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Crime Victims An Introduction to
VictimologySeventh Edition

• By Andrew Karmen
• Chapter Three Sources of Information About Crime
  Victims The UCR and the NCVS

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Introduction

• The Big Picture
• When and where do crimes occur?
• How often are weapons used?
• Are victims usually strangers?
• Do victims resist? Should they?
• How often are victims injured?
• What do victims lose?

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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

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Use and Abuse of Statistics

• Statisticsmeaningful numbers that reveal
  important information
• Official statisticscompiled and published by
  government
• Statistics
• Provide realistic assessments of a threat posed
  to individuals by criminal activity
• Reveal patterns of criminal activity
• Reflect trends in 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

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Use and Abuse of Statistics

• Interpretation of Statistics
• Can be used to influence decision makers
• Can be used to reduce fears
• Can be used to support police administration
• Can be used to show something is not working

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Caution

• However, be aware that statistics can be used to
  present one viewpoint, or be presented with a
  spin.

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• FBI gathers data from local police departments
  and publishes an annual report of crime
  statistics called the Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
• Part One Crimes Reported8 Crimes
• Violent Crime Data(4) Murder, Forcible Rape,
  Robbery and Aggravated Assault
• Property Crime Data(4) Burglary, Larceny/Theft,
  Motor Vehicle Theft and Arson

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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 occurssee Figure 3.1, Page 55

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• UCR reflects data for cities, counties and states
• Reports include
• Number of complaints filed with police
• Proportion of cases solved
• Characteristics of offenders arrested

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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 OffensesGreater 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
• Originally scheduled for year 2000 implementation

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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

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National Crime Victimization Survey(NCVS)

• Crime rates determined by public survey randomly
  selected by U. S. Census Bureau
• First survey, 1966Presidents 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 olderDoes
  NOT include crimes against those under 12 years
  of age

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Four Reasons NCVS Questioned

• Bias of Information
• Credibility of Information
• Wives reporting abuse, girls reporting date rape,
  boys reporting robberies on bad drug deals
• Crimes against children under 12 not probed
• Over reporting
• Pollsters, not detectives, to sort out
  conflicting stories or facts

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Estimated Victimization Rates

• Table 3.1, Pages 65-66
• Crime rates reported by NCVS UCR for 2006
  presented

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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 crimes

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UCR vs. NCVS

• UCRNo data for victims except murder
• NCVSNo 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
• UCRcomputes rates/100,000 population
• NCVScomputes rates/1,000 age 12 and older
  or/households (no number)

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Key Terms
Statistics Official Statistics Patterns
Trends Profiles Spin
Crime Clock Uniform Crime Report National Crime Victimization Survey
Correlation Index crimes Hierarchy Rule
Self report survey Memory decay Forward telescoping
Range (Confidence Interval) Victimization Rates Raw numbers
Big Picture Rates