measuring crime essay

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The Measurement of Crime

Module 3 explores the importance of measuring crime and examines some of those most notable crime reports and statistics, e.g., National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), Uniform Crime Report (UCR), National Crime Victims Survey (NCVS), and self-report surveys. The module provides an opportunity to explore how the measurement of crime involves various methods and indicators to quantify and analyze criminal activity and victimization. For example, crime rates are some commonly used measurements of crime. Crime rates express the number of reported crimes per population or a specific unit of measurement (e.g., per 10,000 or 100,000 people). Crime rates allow for comparisons between different areas or time periods and help assess the relative prevalence of crime within each population. However, absent incident-level data, it becomes difficult if not impossible to contextualize victimization; that is, location, relationship, etc. In addition, the module provides a cursory review of crime mapping as an effective way to analyze where crime occurs. Finally, the module will consider how crime data helps authorities, researchers, and policymakers understand the nature and extent of crime, identify high-risk areas, evaluate the effectiveness of crime prevention strategies, and make informed decisions to enhance public safety.

Learning Objectives

After completing this module, you should be able to:

define the elements of the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and identify its strengths and weaknesses as a crime data source.
describe methodological differences between the UCR and National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).
define the difference between aggregate and incident-level measurement.
define the elements of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and identify its strengths and weaknesses as a crime data source.
define the elements of the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
understand what patterns are present in the UCR and the NCVS and what they reveal about crime.
list advantages and disadvantages of the UCR and NCVS.
summarize what data sources tell us about the criminal justice system.

Crime reports p lay a crucial role in ensuring public safety. By documenting and reporting crimes, law enforcement agencies can identify patterns, trends, and hotspots, enabling them to allocate resources effectively and prevent future crimes. Timely and accurate crime reports help communities stay informed about potential dangers and take necessary precautions. They also p rovide essential information for criminal investigations. They contain details about the nature of the crime, the location, the time of occurrence, and any potential witnesses or suspects. This information helps law enforcement agencies initiate investigations, gather evidence, and identify and apprehend suspects. Crime reports also serve as valuable evidence during criminal trials, aiding in the prosecution of offenders.

By analyzing crime reports, law enforcement agencies can gain insights into crime patterns and trends. They can identify recurring criminal activities, modus operandi, and potential links between different incidents. This analysis allows them to develop effective strategies to combat crime, allocate resources efficiently, and implement preventive measures. In addition, they a ssist in determining resource allocation for law enforcement agencies. By understanding the types and frequency of crimes in different areas, agencies can deploy officers, patrol units, and investigative teams accordingly. Crime reports can also guide the allocation of financial resources for crime prevention initiatives, community outreach programs, and technology upgrades.

One of the more salient benefits of crime data is that it contributes to the formulation of crime prevention policies and strategies. When authorities have access to accurate data on crime rates and trends, they can make informed decisions regarding law enforcement strategies, legislation, and public safety initiatives. Such policies can be tailored to address specific types of crime prevalent in a particular area, leading to more effective crime prevention and reduction. In addition, they p rovide a basis for supporting and assisting victims of crimes. Law enforcement agencies can connect victims with support services, such as counseling, legal aid, and victim compensation programs. Accurate crime reports help ensure that victims’ needs are addressed and that appropriate resources are allocated to assist them in their recovery.

Overall, crime reports are crucial for maintaining public safety, aiding investigations, understanding crime patterns, allocating resources effectively, developing crime prevention strategies, and supporting victims of crime. They form the foundation of a well-informed and proactive approach to law enforcement and community safety.

Test Your Knowledge

Print a copy of the following worksheet and bring it to class! As an alternative, complete the worksheet while you read through the summary located above.

Module 3-Worksheet-The Measurement of Crime

Key Takeaways

Click on the > to expand the related statement.

Key Terms/Concepts

Click on the following key term/concept to view the definition:

Benchmark Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Campbell Collaboration Clearance Rates Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) Crime Mapping Disaggregate Full-Participation Agency Hotel Rule Limited-Participation Agency National Crime Victim Survey (NVCS) National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) Self-Report Surveys Uniform Crime Report U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Victimization Rates

Modern Application

Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

The advent of personal computing machines that were available for public consumption in the late 1980s, produced unanticipated ways for would-be criminals to commit crime. Although most crimes were, “traditional crimes committed in a non-traditional way” (McQuade III, 2006), new crimes like hacking were also imagined. Despite the precipitous increase in digital crimes, there was no formal way to collect incident rate information. The private industry, e.g., Norton, Semantic, Internet Watch Foundation, etc., proactively began collecting data related to a variety of digital crimes.

In 2000, the Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), established the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The IC3 has received complaints crossing the spectrum of cyber crime matters, to include online fraud in its many forms including Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) matters, Computer Intrusions (hacking), Economic Espionage (Theft of Trade Secrets), Online Extortion, International Money Laundering, Identity Theft, and a growing list of Internet facilitated crimes. It has become increasingly evident that, regardless of the label placed on a cyber crime matter, the potential for it to overlap with another referred matter is substantial. Therefore, the IC3, formerly known as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center ( Internet Fraud Complaint Center ), was renamed in October 2003 to better reflect the broad character of such matters having an Internet, or cyber, nexus referred to the IC3, and to minimize the need for one to distinguish “Internet Fraud” from other potentially overlapping cyber crimes.

Visit the IC3 webpage and review Annual Reports and other data related to complaints of computer crime.

IC3: Other Types of Crimes

Read, Review, Watch and Listen

1. Read Chapter 44: Crime Reports And Statistics by Callie Marie Rennison, University of Missouri – St. Louis (Rennison, 2009)

Print a copy or have access to this reading via a digital device for in class review and discussion.
To support the student’s reading of the article, they can listen to a recorded version of the same. Note that listening to the article is not a substitute for a careful and directed reading of the document.

This chapter:

provides an overview of crime reports and statistics, explaining their importance in offering insights into the extent, nature, and changing characteristics of crime over time.
highlights the role of two primary data sources in the U.S.—the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)—explaining their methodologies, advantages, and limitations in crime measurement.
discusses how crime reports aid policymakers and researchers by offering critical data on crime trends, which helps guide policy decisions, crime prevention strategies, and resource allocation.
explains the concept of “dark figure of crime,” referring to unreported crimes that the NCVS captures but the UCR does not, thereby providing a more comprehensive understanding of crime prevalence.
describes the evolution of crime reporting systems, noting the enhancements in the UCR’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which aims to offer more detailed and incident-level crime data.

2. Review the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Incident-Based Reporting System ( NIBRS ) website

3. Review Chicago Data Portal: click HERE

4. Review Chicago Police Department’s CLEARmap: click HERE

5. Review Chicago Police Department’s Violence Reduction Dashboard : click HERE

6. Review NIBRS Participation Rates and Federal Crime Data Quality

7. Watch the FBI’s NIBRS 101 resource: [also located below]

8. Watch the Bureau of Justice Statistics’(BJS) Learn More about the NCVS : (also located below)

9. Listen to There’s A Continued Uptick in Violent Crime, According to Federal Survey (NPR, September 11, 2019)

10. Listen to the National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ) Justice Today’s podcast The Science of School Safety [11:55 – #17 within the list of episodes]

To access the PPT file, click HERE . Note that files are updated regularly and as such might change in content and appearance.

Read, Review, Watch and Listen to all listed materials by the due date listed within the course LMS (i.e., Blackboard) site.

Contact the professor with any course-related questions

Click HERE to report any needed updates, e.g., broken links.

Activity – Trends in Violent Crime

Students should review the course syllabus to determine the assignment of this activity.

This is a copy of the module’s activity that students find within Blackboard. For that reason, refer to the Activities page to submit your work for review.

The purpose of this activity is to explore the nature and extent of violent crime and better understand why some groups of people experience a greater or lower rate of violence.

Instructions

Review Data Matters: The Story In Numbers – Trends In Violent Crime (see attached)
Review Forbes’ [Infographic] article, Major American Cities See Sharp Spike In Murders In 2020 (Aug. 4, 2020)
Review Statista’s data on the Number of violent crime victims in the United States from 2005 to 2021, by gender
Review the National Crime Victim Survey’s (NCVS) Summary findings (BJS, 2020) [ https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/cv20_sum.pdf ]

Answer the following questions:

Why might some groups of people experience violence at a greater or lower rate? Explain.
If a group of people have a higher rate of violent victimization, does that mean that the same group also has the highest number of victims? Be specific and use chapter specific details to formulate your response.
How do rates and counts differ?
How would you explain the significant decrease in property and nonfatal violent crime rates since the early 1990s.

Key Concepts & Chapter Related Facts

Count only really make sense if your denominator is fixed, or relatively so. For example, if as a probation officer, you see 1,000 clients each month, then a change in cases from Month X to Month X+1 is a genuine change in cases.
Dark figure of crime – Crimes that fail to come to the attention of the police, because they were unreported, it was unclear a crime occurred, or no one learned that a crime was committed.
National Crime Victim Survey (NCVS) – A nationally representative survey of victims of property, and personal violence in the United States.
Rates are the number of events that occur in a defined period, divided by the average population at risk of that event.
Uniform Crime Report (UCR) – This program, started by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the moved under the umbrella of the FBI in 1929, is a compilation of crime data.

Refer to the course learning management system (LMS); that is Blackboard (BB), for the correct due date. In addition, submit your work via BB for grading.

Discussion Questions

What are the main purposes and functions of crime reports and statistics and how do they help us understand the nature and extent of crime in society?
What are the major differences between the UCR and the NCVS and how do they affect the measurement and comparison of crime over time?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the UCR and NVCS?
What are some of the recent developments and innovations in crime reporting systems and how do they address the gaps and problems of the existing systems?
How would you design your own crime reporting system? That is, what types of crimes, victims, offenders, and incident characteristics would you include? Describe the methods and tools would you use to collect and analyze the data?

Supplemental Resources

National Crime Victimization Survey ( NCVS )
National Incident-Based Reporting System ( NIBRS)
National Institute of Justice ( NIJ )
Criminal Victimization 2022 (U.S. DOJ, NCJ 307089)
Prison Policy Initiative
Chicago Police Department- Statistical Reports

Statistics for the Social and Behavioral Sciences at College of DuPage

PSYCH 2280 (M1 902) – Students will focus on mathematical reasoning and problem solving through the application of statistical methods in the analysis of quantitative data in the social and behavioral sciences. Students will also explore frequently used statistical methods and learn the use of computer applications in the analysis of quantitative data. Credit cannot be given for both for Psychology 2280 and Sociology 2205. (2 lecture hours, 2 lab hours)

SOCIO 2205 (M1 902) – Students will focus on mathematical reasoning and problem solving through the application of statistical methods in the analysis of quantitative data in the social and behavioral sciences. Students will also explore frequently used statistical methods and learn the use of computer applications in the analysis of quantitative data. Credit cannot be given for both for PSYCH 2280 and SOCIO 2205. (2 lecture hours, 2 lab hours)

Rennison, C. M. (2009). Crime Reports and Statistics. In J. M. Miller (Ed.), 21st Century Reference Series . 21st Century Criminology : A Reference Handbook (Vol. 1, pp. 383-390). SAGE Reference. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3201600056/GVRL?u=cod_lrc&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=3e3598e2
National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). United States Department of Justice (DOJ). https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/more-fbi-services-and-information/ucr/nibrs. Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.
Chicago Data Portal. https://data.cityofchicago.org/Public-Safety/Crimes-Map/dfnk-7re6. Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.
Chicago Police Department CLEARMap. https://nij.ojp.gov/. https://gis.chicagopolice.org/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.
Chicago Police Department Violence Reduction Dashboard. https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/vrd/home.html. Accessed 5 June 2024.
Chicago Police Department – Statistical Reports. https://home.chicagopolice.org/statistics-data/statistical-reports/. Accessed 5 June 2024.
Congressional Research Service (May 24, 2022). https://cod.pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/148/2023/09/NIBRS-Participation-Rates-and-Federal-Data-Crime-Data-Quality-May-2022.pdf. Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.
NIBRS 101. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). United States Department of Justice (DOJ, 2018). Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.
United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Learn More about the NCVS (BJS, 2023). https://youtu.be/AT3wFwLS2uo?si=BtUo__uBJmOViTEg. Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.
NPR Morning Edition. There’s A Continued Uptick in Violent Crime, According to Federal Survey (Martin Kaste,Tanya Ballard Brown, Sep. 11, 2019). Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.
United States Department of Justice (DOJ) Justice Today. The Science of School Safety . National Institute of Justice (NIJ). Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.

Refers to a standard or point of reference against which the performance or characteristics of something can be measured or evaluated. Benchmarks are commonly used to assess the relative performance or quality of data, processes, systems, or investments.

BJS is the primary statistical agency of the Department of Justice. It is one of the thirteen principal federal statistical agencies throughout the Executive Branch, agencies whose activities are predominantly focused on the collection, compilation, processing, or analysis of information for statistical purposes.

The Campbell Collaboration is an international social science research network that produces high quality, open and policy-relevant evidence syntheses, plain language summaries and policy briefs.

Represent the percentage of reported crimes that result in an arrest, charge, or other form of resolution by law enforcement. Clearance rates can indicate the effectiveness of police investigations and the likelihood of holding offenders accountable.

The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) is a nonprofit advocacy organization working to promote and advance the social and behavioral sciences in federal policymaking. Headquartered in Washington, DC, COSSA serves as a united voice for organizations, institutions, communities, and stakeholders who care about a successful and vibrant social science research enterprise. COSSA’s policy experts work with a broad network of advocates to ensure sustainable federal funding for social and behavioral science research and the widespread use of our sciences in policymaking. Join our team of professional associations, scientific societies, research centers and institutes, U.S. colleges and universities, and private sector partners to help raise the profile of social and behavioral science research.

Involves the visualization of crime data on maps, allowing analysts to identify crime hotspots, patterns, and trends. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology is often used to map crime data, enabling law enforcement agencies to allocate resources efficiently.

Means to break down or divide something into its individual components, parts, or smaller units. This term is often used in various fields, including statistics, economics, data analysis, and decision-making, to gain a more detailed or granular understanding of a larger entity or dataset.

NIBRS participating agencies that submit data on all Group A and B offenses.

Within the context of the UCR, means that if a number of units under a single manager are burglarized and the offenses are most likely to be reported to the police by the manager rather than the individual tenants, the burglary must be reported as a single offense. Burglaries of hotels, motels, lodging houses, or other places where lodging of transients is the main purpose can present reporting problems to law enforcement.

A NIBRS participating agency unable to meet the offense-reporting requirements of full-participation agencies. That is, these agencies submit detailed incident information only on Part I UCR offenses.

Conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the United States, gathers information on criminal victimization, regardless of whether it was reported to law enforcement. The survey collects data through interviews with individuals, aiming to capture crimes that may go unreported to the police.

An advanced method of crime data collection and reporting developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States. Since January 2021, NIBRS replaced the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) as it was designed to provide a detailed and comprehensive review of crime, victims, and more nuanced factors. That is, it provides more detailed and comprehensive information about crimes and incidents.

Unlike the UCR, which only captures summary data on a limited number of offenses, NIBRS collects data on each reported incident and includes a wide range of offense types, such as crimes against persons, property crimes, and crimes against society. It captures extensive details about the incident, the victim(s), the offender(s), and other pertinent factors related to the crime.

Involves individuals reporting their own involvement in criminal activities. These surveys are typically conducted anonymously and can provide insights into less detected or unreported crimes. They are often used to study juvenile delinquency and certain types of offenses.

Was a program, maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States, collects and publishes data on reported crimes. It includes information on various crimes, such as murder, robbery, burglary, and motor vehicle theft, providing statistics at the national, state, and local levels.

Under the leadership of the Attorney General of the United States, the Justice Department is composed of more than 40 separate component organizations and more than 115,000 employees. Headquartered at the Robert F. Kennedy Building in Washington, D.C., the Department maintains field offices in all states and territories across the United States and in more than 50 countries around the world.

Measures the frequency of individuals or households experiencing crime. These rates provide an understanding of the likelihood of becoming a victim of crime within a given population.

Criminology: Foundations and Modern Applications Copyright © 2023 by Eric Ramirez-Thompson, PhD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Measuring Crime

Introduction, general overviews.

Crime Data from Police Records
Crime Data from Victimization Surveys
Crime Data Concerning Offenders
Data Quality Concerns
Changing from Aggregate- to Incident-Level Data Collection
Missing Data Concerns and Imputation
Issues Concerning the National Crime Victimization Survey
Issues Concerning Measuring Violence against Women
Measurement Issues Confronting Offender Data
Divergence between Police and Victimization Data
Cross-National Comparisons
Recent Crime Trends

Other Subject Areas

Forthcoming articles expand or collapse the "forthcoming articles" section.

Education Programs in Prison
Juvenile Justice Professionals' Perceptions of Youth
Find more forthcoming articles...
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Measuring Crime by Lynn A. Addington LAST REVIEWED: 14 December 2009 LAST MODIFIED: 14 December 2009 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396607-0057

The measurement of crime is an important topic, but it is frequently overlooked by criminologists. This slight is unfortunate, since accurate crime data are needed to adequately test theories of offending and victimization as well as to assess the effectiveness of public policies. The three main sources of crime data include official reports from the police, surveys of victims, and self-reports from offenders. Much of the work assessing how crime is measured focuses on data collected in the United States. Studies of US crime data and its measurement likely have broad applicability since US systems such as its National Crime Victimization Survey have served as the model for data collection efforts in other countries.

Although crime measurement has not garnered a great deal of widespread attention, several good overviews exist that both discuss the issues surrounding measuring crime as well as describe the available data sources. Although these texts typically focus on crime measurement in the United States, the concerns raised are more broadly applicable, since data-collection efforts in the United States have served as a model for other countries. A classic study in this area is Biderman and Lynch 1991 , an examination of crime measurement in the context of divergence, or why police and victimization data might not tell comparable stories about crime trends. This work was updated and expanded by Lynch and Addington 2007 , which includes chapters that examine new efforts to measure crime by police sources and victimization surveys. Both volumes are well suited for graduate students, graduate seminar classes, and researchers looking for a solid overview of police and victimization data. For advanced undergraduate students, graduate students and researchers new to the area, Mosher, et al. 2002 offers a clear overview to the topic and summarizes the current measurement issues. The edited volume by Duffee, et al. 2000 provides another excellent overview to measurement issues. This volume is easily accessible for graduate students and researchers. The chapters provide thorough reviews of topics, including measuring crime using victimization and self-report offender surveys as well as measuring particular crimes such as sexual assault.

Biderman, Albert D., and James P. Lynch. 1991. Understanding crime incidence statistics: Why the UCR diverges from the NCS . New York: Springer-Verlag.

A thoughtful and thorough, if slightly dated, review and synthesis of the measurement issues involving data from police reports and victimization surveys. Recommended for graduate students and researchers.

Duffee, David, David McDowall, Lorraine Green Mazerolle, and Stephen D. Mastrofski. 2000. Criminal Justice 2000: Measurement and analysis of crime and justice , Vol. 4. Washington, DC: United States Department of Justice.

Edited volume contains several excellent chapters that thoroughly address topics of measuring crime through victimization surveys and self-report offender surveys. Includes specialized topics such as measuring sexual assault and fear of crime. Recommended for graduate students and researchers. Available online .

Lynch, James P., and Lynn A. Addington. 2007. Understanding crime statistics: Revisiting the divergence of the NCVS and UCR . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Update and expansion of Biderman and Lynch 1991 . Edited volume includes chapters describing data sources and sources of divergence between data from police records and victimization surveys. Recommended for graduate students and researchers.

Mosher, Clayton, Terance D. Miethe, and Dretha M. Phillips. 2002. The mismeasure of crime . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Covers all three sources of crime data (police records, victimization surveys, and self-report offender surveys). Includes critiques of these data and how these problems have led to the “mismeasure” of crime. Recommended for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers new to the area.

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