Crime and Victimization Discussion

Essay by mechfsCollege, UndergraduateA+, October 2014

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Two of the Major method of measuring crime and victimization in the U.S. are the UCR (Uniform Crime Report) and the NCVS (National Crime Victimization Survey). Both the UCR and the NCVS are overseen by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations).

In comparison both of these ways assist in the prediction of crime and criminal activity in certain geographical areas from a wide and narrow spectrum, And are even used by Congress to allocate federal funding to states for the criminal justice system, i.e. policing and corrections.

Although very informative in their own ways they both have their strengths and weaknesses that I've found via class materials and my own personal opinions.

UCR (Uniform Crime Report)

Help police departments local and state in their patrol focuses for the year and predict future areas of crime related activities in the future via past information.

Help citizens in the search for homes in great neighborhoods.

Only accounts for a limited amount of crimes such as:

Murder: Not all info given on all cases

Rape : Women ONLY

Burglary

Not all police departments participate and actually report all of the crimes they arrest for or that occur

Victims not reporting certain crimes for reasons such as it being a personal matter, they're afraid of the consequences of reporting it to proper authorities, or the victim not thinking of the crime being sufficient enough to be considered a crime.

You have to account for each category that there is a crime reported or arrest actually made

NCVS (National Crime Victimization Survey)

The NCVS doesn't include serious crimes such as murder because the victim is obviously deceased and cannot be interviewed

Allows for a greater spectrum of information due to people reporting activity not reported by the UCR

Cannot always be...