1. Chapter 2 – The Nature and Extent of Crime

2. Crime Patterns and Trends
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

3. Methods of Measuring Crime
Uniform Crime Reports
Victim Surveys
Self-Report Surveys

4. Uniform Crime Reports
Best known source of aggregate criminal statistics
98% of the police departments in the US voluntarily participate in UCR
Yearly FBI publication
Started 1930

5. Uniform Crime Reports 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

6. Uniform Crime Reports Violent Crime Non-violent Crime Index Crimes
Criminal Homicide
Forcible Rape
Robbery
Aggravated assault
Burglary
Larceny/theft
Motor vehicle theft
Arson
Non-violent
Crime

7. Uniform Crime Reports
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.

8. Overall 21 % clearance rate

10. Uniform Crime Reports Problems with the UCR
1) On average approximately 50% of all index crimes are reported to the police
26% of thefts
50% of burglaries
45% of rapes
57% of robberies

11. Uniform Crime Reports
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

12. Uniform Crime Reports 6) Only the most serious crime is an “episode”
7) Weak on “white collar” crime

13. The Future of the Uniform Crime Reports
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.

14. Victimization surveys
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

15. NCVS Ask about theft, burglary, robbery, assault, rape, and auto theft
Used to estimate the national frequency of index crimes

16. Data provided by NCVS Victimizations Victims, offenders, crime event
Reported loss & injury
Whether crimes were reported

17. NCVS Number of Offenses
*Includes 357,000 “personal crimes” of purse snatching & pocket picking.
Number of Offenses
20,106,000
7,359,000
4,635,000
1,433,000
944,000
311,000
Theft*
Assault
Burglary
Motor vehicle theft
Robbery
Rape/ Sexual assault
Total = 35,145,000
Source: National Crime Victimization Survey. Criminal Victimization, Adapted from U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, December 1998), p. 3.

18. Advantages & Limitations of NCVS
1) Best victimization data
2) “larger picture of crime”
DISADVANTAGES
1) Victim misinterpretation
2) Memories fade
3) Lying to interviewer
4) Telescoping – problems with recall
5) Expensive

19. Self-Report Surveys
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

20. Self Report Studies Interviews mainly with juveniles
Most youth engaged in delinquency (crime is universal
Higher crime patterns than UCR and NCVS

21. Self-Report Surveys
Strength of self-reports surveys is get more detailed information
Weaknesses include
Inaccuracy – are they telling the truth?
Focus on trivial acts frequently

22. Current Crime Trends Current data from the Uniform
Crime Reports and the National
Crime Victim Surveys reveal a
steady decrease in crime. Self-
reported data reveals no
discernable change in the rate.

23. Current Crime Trends Caution in interpreting UCR and other data
Time frame is important
Overall rate hides increases and decreases within crime categories
Want disaggregated data
By offense, state/region, etc.

24. Explaining Crime Trends
Some of the important
critical factors that have
been used to explain the
puzzle of crime rate trends.
Age
The economy
Guns
Gangs
Drugs
Justice Policy

25. Correlates of Crime
Social class
Race
Gender
Age

26. Correlates of Crime – Social Class
Higher crime rates in lower class areas
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
Focus on trivial offenses

27. Correlates of Crime – Social Class
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

28. Correlates of Crime – Age
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

29. Correlates of Crime – Age
Property crime arrests peak at age 16
Violent crime arrests peak at age 18

30. Correlates of Crime – Age
Why does aging out occur?
Cognitive changes in late teens
No longer need for immediate gratification
Fear of punishment
Adulthood brings powerful ties to conventional society

31. Correlates of Crime – Gender
Male crime rate higher than female
Males commit more serious crimes
Recent view of female criminality
Socialization of females (supervised closely)
Changing social and economic role of women

32. Correlates of Crime – Gender
Crime more a function of economic inequality instead of female rights
End of “chivalry hypothesis”

33. Correlates of Crime – Race/Ethnicity
Minorities involved in disproportionate % of crimes
Blacks 12% of population, 44% of index violent crime arrests
Reflection of police practices or true criminal participation?

34. Correlates of Crime – Race/Ethnicity
Causes of racial disparity in crime
Differential treatment by police
Subculture of violence
Racism and discrimination affect personality and behavior
Poverty/Urban problems
Etc.

35. Knowledge drawn from UCR, NCVS, and Self Report Studies
Crime Trends
Characteristics of Crimes
Characteristics of offenders & victims
Correlates of Crime

36. 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.

37. The “Chronic 6%” 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