Chapter 2 – The Nature and
Extent of Crime
Crime Patterns and Trends
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Want to know
How much crime is there?
Is it increasing or decreasing?
Who commits crime?
Answers are used to formulate theories
and develop policies to control crime
Methods of Measuring Crime
Uniform Crime Reports
Victim Surveys
Self-Report Surveys
Uniform Crime Reports
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Best known source of aggregate
criminal statistics
98% of the police departments in the
US voluntarily participate in UCR
Yearly FBI publication
Started 1930
Uniform Crime Reports
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2 types of data collected:
1) Offenses reported to the police
Collect information on index crimes
reported to the police
Known as Index or Part I crimes
Uniform Crime Reports
Violent
Crime
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Index Crimes
 Criminal Homicide
 Forcible Rape
 Robbery
 Aggravated assault
 Burglary
 Larceny/theft
 Motor vehicle theft
 Arson
Non-violent
Crime
Uniform Crime Reports
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2) Number and characteristics (age,
gender, and race/ethnicity) of those
arrested for all other crimes
Known as non-index or Part II crimes
On average, 20% of all reported index
crimes are cleared by arrest, lower for
many non-index crimes.
Percent of Crimes Cleared by Arrest
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
murder
rape
robbery
larceny
burglary
MVT
69%
50%
28%
19%
14% 14%
Uniform Crime Reports
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Problems with the UCR
1) On average approximately 50% of all
index crimes are reported to the police
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26%
50%
45%
57%
of
of
of
of
thefts
burglaries
rapes
robberies
Uniform Crime Reports
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2) On average, 20% of all reported
index crimes are cleared by arrest
3) State law definitions may be different
than UCR definitions
4) Systematic errors in reporting
5) Deliberate alteration
Uniform Crime Reports
• 6) Only the most serious crime is an
“episode”
• 7) Weak on “white collar” crime
The Future of the Uniform Crime
Reports
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National Incident-Based Reporting
System (NIBRS)
Maintained by the F.B.I.
Twenty-two crime categories
More information on each crime in each
category
Data compiled based on incidents, not
arrests.
Victimization surveys
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National Crime Victimization Survey-NCVS
US Census
Started in 1972
60,000 households
120,000 people over 12 years old
Interviewed 2 times a year for 3 years
NCVS
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Ask about theft, burglary, robbery,
assault, rape, and auto theft
Used to estimate the national frequency
of index crimes
Data provided by NCVS
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Victimizations
Victims, offenders, crime event
Reported loss & injury
Whether crimes were reported
NCVS
Number of Offenses
20,106,000
Total = 35,145,000
7,359,000
4,635,000
1,433,000
Theft*
Assault
Burglary
Motor vehicle
theft
944,000
Robbery
311,000
Rape/
Sexual
assault
*Includes 357,000 “personal crimes” of purse snatching & pocket
picking.
Source: National Crime Victimization Survey. Criminal Victimization, 1997. Adapted from U.S.
Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing
Office, December 1998), p. 3.
Advantages & Limitations of NCVS
ADVANTAGES
DISADVANTAGES
1) Best victimization data
1) Victim
misinterpretation
2) Memories fade
3) Lying to interviewer
4) Telescoping – problems
with recall
5) Expensive
2) “larger picture of crime”
Self-Report Surveys
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Participants reveal information about their
violations of the law
Helps to get at “Dark Figure of Crime”
Supplement and expand official data
Can find out about the personality, attitudes,
and behavior of criminals
Accuracy for chronic offenders and drug
abusers may be limited
Self Report Studies
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Interviews mainly with juveniles
Most youth engaged in delinquency (crime
is universal
Higher crime patterns than UCR and NCVS
Self-Report Surveys
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Strength of self-reports surveys is get
more detailed information
Weaknesses include
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Inaccuracy – are they telling the truth?
Focus on trivial acts frequently
Current Crime Trends
Current data from the Uniform
Crime Reports and the National
Crime Victim Surveys reveal a
steady decrease in crime. Selfreported data reveals no
discernable change in the rate.
Current Crime Trends
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Caution in interpreting UCR and other
data
Time frame is important
Overall rate hides increases and
decreases within crime categories
Want disaggregated data
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By offense, state/region, etc.
Explaining Crime Trends
Some of the important
critical factors that have
been used to explain the
puzzle of crime rate trends.
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Age
The economy
Guns
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Gangs
Drugs
Justice Policy
Correlates of Crime
•
Social
class
• Race
• Gender
• Age
Correlates of Crime –
Social Class
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Higher crime rates in lower class areas
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Rely on official statistics
Concern over whether function of police
practices or actual behavior patterns
Crime is not just street crime
Self-report studies indicate class-crime
relationship doesn’t exist
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Focus on trivial offenses
Correlates of Crime –
Social Class
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Why important?
1) If class-crime relationship then
poverty and neighborhood deterioration
related to crime
2) If not then factors experienced by all
classes (poor family environment, peer
pressure, school failure, free will)
related to crime
Correlates of Crime –
Age
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Some argue that age structure of
society is the single most powerful
influence on the crime rate
13-17 year olds make up 6% of the
population but 30% of index crime
arrests
Correlates of Crime –
Age
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Property crime arrests peak at age 16
Violent crime arrests peak at age 18
Correlates of Crime –
Age
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Why does aging out occur?
Cognitive changes in late teens
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No longer need for immediate gratification
Fear of punishment
Adulthood brings powerful ties to
conventional society
Correlates of Crime –
Gender
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Male crime rate higher than female
Males commit more serious crimes
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Recent view of female criminality
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Socialization of females (supervised
closely)
Changing social and economic role of
women
Correlates of Crime –
Gender
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Crime more a function of economic
inequality instead of female rights
End of “chivalry hypothesis”
Correlates of Crime –
Race/Ethnicity
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Minorities involved in disproportionate
% of crimes
Blacks 12% of population, 44% of index
violent crime arrests
Reflection of police practices or true
criminal participation?
Correlates of Crime –
Race/Ethnicity
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Causes of racial disparity in crime
Differential treatment by police
Subculture of violence
Racism and discrimination affect
personality and behavior
Poverty/Urban problems
Etc.
Knowledge drawn from UCR,
NCVS, and Self Report Studies
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Crime Trends
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Characteristics of Crimes
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Characteristics of offenders & victims
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Correlates of Crime
The “Chronic 6%”
After following a birth cohort of 9,945 boys
born in Philadelphia in 1945, Wolfgang and
his associates found that 6% of the total sample
were responsible for 51.9% of all offenses.
The “Chronic 6%”
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Wolfgang findings
1) Small number of offenders commit a
disproportionate amount of crime
2) Chronic offenders continue into
adulthood
3) More violent as generations progress