Larry J. Siegel
www.cengage.com/cj/siegel
Chapter Two
The Nature and Extent of Crime
Valerie Bell • University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
The Nature & Extent of Crime
• Primary Sources of Crime Data
1.OFFICIAL RECORDS
2.SURVEY RESEARCH
3.SELF-REPORT SURVEYS
Primary Sources of Crime Data
• Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
– includes crimes reported to police and number of arrests
– Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) collects this data from over
17,000 police depts. nationwide
• Part I Crimes
–murder, non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery,
aggravated assault, burglary, arson, and motor vehicle theft,
larceny/theft (see Exhibit 2.1, p. 25)
• Part II Crimes
–simple assault, curfew offenses, loitering, embezzlement,
forgery and counterfeiting, disorderly conduct, driving under
the influence, drug offenses, fraud, gambling, liquor offenses,
offenses against the family, prostitution, public drunkenness,
runaways, sex offenses, stolen property, vandalism, vagrancy,
and weapons offenses
– includes data on age, race, and gender of offenders
Primary Sources of Crime Data
Primary Sources of Crime Data
• Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
– Cleared (or Closed) Crimes
• 20% of all Part I crimes cleared each year
–at least one person arrested, charged, and turned over to the
courts for prosecution
–known offender cannot be arrested (e.g., dies, leaves country)
• violent crimes more likely to be cleared
–police devote more resources these more serious acts
–witnesses (including victims) more available
Primary Sources of Crime Data
• Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
– 3 Ways of Reporting/Expressing Crime Data
• raw numbers
–16, 928 murders occurred in 2007
• as a rate per 100,000 people
–number of reported crimes/total U.S. population x 100,000=
rate/100,000
–6 in 100,000 people were murdered in 2007
• percent changes over time
–murder decreased in the U.S. by .6% from 2006 to 2007
Primary Sources of Crime Data
• Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
– Validity of the UCR (see Exhibit 2.2 for factors, p. 28)
• over HALF of crimes in the U.S. not reported to police
–victims consider the crime unimportant
–victims don’t trust police
–victims fear reprisal by offender’s friends or family
–victims involved with illegal activities themselves
• police depts. differ in their reporting behavior
–reporting trespassing as burglary
–reporting an assault on a female as attempted rape
• UCR only considers most serious crime committed
–bank robber steals a car, UCR only records robbery
(“Hierarchy Rule”)
Primary Sources of Crime Data
• National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
– goal is to provide more detailed crime statistics than the UCR
– currently 57 offenses reported using NIBRS
• 46 specific offenses in 22 crime categories including the
eight Part I offenses (Group A Offenses)
• 11 lesser offenses (Group B Offenses)
– includes incident, victim, and offender information
– 20 states have implemented
– 12 states finalizing data collection
Primary Sources of Crime Data
• National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
– Annual survey of victims since 1973 (by U.S. Census Bureau)
– 76,000 households/135,300 people age 12 and up asked
whether victimized in past 6 months
• includes many types of crimes and whether the person
reported the crime to police OR NOT
–less than 1/2 of violent crime and about 1/3 of property
crime reported
–e.g., 90,000 rapes or attempted rapes reported/year by
the UCR whereas NCVS notes about 250,000 occur/year
– important for addressing “non-reporting” issue
• provides detailed information regarding frequency and nature
of victimization including demographics of both victims and
offenders as well as details of the victimization experience
Primary Sources of Crime Data
• National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
– Validity of the NCVS
• over-reporting
• under-reporting
• sampling errors
• age-appropriateness of questions
– Future of the NCVS
• budget cuts have reduced number of participating
households
• significant changes in 2006
–new sampling method
–change in how 1st time interviews handled
–change to computer-assisted interviewing
Your Results
• REPORTED
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3+ robbery
hit & run
car theft
under-age drinking
trespassing
2 burglary
speeding
wreckless driving
DUI
PI/disorderly conduct
terroristic threatening
vandalism
domestic disturbance
2 child abuse
runaway
harassment
• NOT REPORTED
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curfew violation
5 burglary/breaking & entering
3 car theft
murder
2 assault
DUI
2 PI
contributing to delinquency of a minor
spousal abuse
pirating (not at sea)
3 sexual abuse (child)
neglect
3 vandalism (broken windows, egging)
2 under-age drinking
trespassing
2 terroristic threatening
statutory rape
rape
2 hit & run/car accident
abuse of a corpse
Primary Sources of Crime Data
• Self-Report Surveys
– asks subjects to reveal their own participation in delinquent or
criminal acts
– anonymously given in groups
– mostly focus on juvenile delinquency and youth crimes
– also used with prison inmates, drug users, and other groups
– asks questions about attitudes, values, and behaviors to find
relationship between personal factors and criminal behavior
Primary Sources of Crime Data
• Self-Report Surveys
– Validity of Self-Reports
• Do participants tell the truth?
– research finds kids are honest about being arrested or
sent to court
• the “missing cases” phenomenon
– What about the absent or non-participating population?
– Are the high-rate offenders in this group?
• most likely measures only non-serious, occasional
delinquency and not hard-core chronic offensers
Primary Sources of Crime Data
• Self-Report Surveys
– “Monitoring the Future” Survey
• one of the most important sources of self-report data
• national survey of over 2,500 high school seniors
• suggests crime problem is even greater than both the UCR and
the NCVS report
–e.g., 630,000 armed robberies committed by kids 15-19
according to a recent MTF survey; UCR tallied only 440,000
armed robberies for all age groups in this same time period
Evaluating Crime Data
LINKS
•For links to these and other criminological data, see the
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data.
“Pick a Crime. Any Crime.”
50 Points
• Choose one (1) of the twenty-two NIBRS Category A Offenses.
• Use the links below to find the following information about your chosen
crime/crime category:
1. legal definition of your crime 10 pts.
2. national statistics related to your crime 10 pts.
3. state statistics related to your crime 10 pts.
4. discrepancy in data (occurrence v. reported, etc.) 10 pts.
5. factors associated with your crime (cause, correlation, victim
characteristics, age, gender, etc.) 10 pts.
• Uniform Crime Reports
• NIBRS
• NCVS
• Monitoring the Future
• CityRating.com
• For links to these and other criminological data, see the National Archive of
Criminal Justice Data.
Evaluating Crime Data
• Strengths
–UCR
• Offender data
• Information on crimes surveys cannot measure
–NCVS
• Unreported crimes
• Victimization data
–Self-report surveys
• Information on offenders
Evaluating Crime Data
• Weaknesses
–UCR
• Does not include unreported crimes
–NCVS
• Limited samples
• Personal recollections
• Does not include homicide, drug abuse crimes
–Self-report surveys
• Rely on honesty of offenders
The Nature & Extent of Crime
The Nature & Extent of Crime
The Nature & Extent of Crime
Crime Trends
• According to data from both the UCR and the NCVS:
– 1980s saw an INCREASE in crime rates that peaked in 1991
– 1990s saw a DECREASE in crime rates
– 2008, 11 million crimes reported compared to 15 million in
1991 EVEN THOUGH the U.S. population had increased by
50 million people during this time period
– trends include both property and violent crime
Crime Trends
• What the Future Holds...?
– currently 50 million school-age children with many under 10
years of age
– crime rates expected to rise once this population reaches
teenage years
– senior citizens have overall lower crime rates and this
population is increasing as life expectancy increases
– other factors affecting crime in the coming years
• economy
• technological change
• other social factors (e.g., immigration, racial/ethnic tension)
Crime Patterns
• Weather and Time of the Month
– most crime occurs during warm summer months
• kids out of school
• more people outdoors making homes
vulnerable
• exceptions: murders and robberies more in
Dec. and Jan.
– crime rates higher on the first day of the month
• paycheck connection
• Temperature
– crime rises until 85° is reached; then it decreases
• possibly due to stress that heat induces
Crime Patterns
• Regional Differences
– large urban areas have highest crime rates
– areas with numerous resorts have higher crime rates
– the SOUTH has consistently higher property and
violent crime rates
• Firearms
– used in 20% of robberies
– 10% of assaults
– 5% of rapes
– 67% of all murders
– these stats fuel both sides of the gun control debate:
Do guns lead to increases in criminal behavior or
do they serve as a deterrent to crime?
Crime Patterns
• Social Class
– UCR indicates crime mostly in inner-city, highproperty areas
– self-report data indicates serious crimes more
prevalent in lower-class areas
– other crimes evenly distributed among all social
classes
• Age
– younger people commit crime than older people
– property crimes around age 16
– violent crime peaks at 18
– overwhelming majority of people “age out” of crime
• learn to delay gratification
• more focused on establishing themselves in
society (e.g., getting a job, starting a family)
Crime Patterns
Crime Patterns
• Gender
‣
‣
victims report 80% of violent victimization committed by males
UCR indicates 4 to 1 ration of male to female offenders (for
murder, it’s 8 to 1 ratio of male to female)
‣ self-report data is similar but ratios are smaller
‣ over last decade, male arrest rates down 9%; females up 9%
‣ reasons for gender differences
• female criminals lacked typical female traits;
more masculine (Lambroso)
• hormonal differences
• socialization--girls socialized to be less
aggressive and are better supervised
• cognitive differences--girls better verbally
able to talk way out of problems
and
• social/political differences--women more likely to be home
with children; have fewer opportunities to commit crimes
Crime Patterns
• Race
‣ black Americans make up 12% of U.S. population but account for 38% of violent
crime arrests/30% of property crime arrests
‣ Monitoring the Future study finds few racial differences in crimes committed
‣ reasons for racial disparity
•
police profiling may account for arrest disparities
•
history of slavery and racism and long-standing racist/ discriminatory
practices in society
• some jurisdictions treat black men more harshly than other groups
• black and latino adults less likely to receive bail in violent crimes
• unemployed African-Americans receive longer prison sentences
unemployed whites
than
•
Racial Threat Theory--suggests as black population increases, so does the
amount of social control the justice system aims at African-Americans
•
economic and social disparity--racial and ethnic minorities experience
greater social isolation and economic stress
•
family dissolution--disproportionate number of single, female-headed
households
Chronic Offenders/Criminal Careers
• Delinquency in a Birth Cohort
– study of young boys by Wolfgang, Figlio, and Sellin
– found that 6% of their sample committed 52% of all the crime
• Causes of Chronicity
– early arrest (before 15)
– low intellectual ability
– parental drug involvement to chronicity
• arrest and punishment have little deterrent effect on career
criminals
• 3-strike laws have been created to try and deal with these
offenders
The Nature & Extent of Crime