1. Criminology 102 Seminar 2

2. Collecting Data on Crime UCR-collected by FBI from around 17,000 police departments. The best most widely known source of crime statistics in the United States.

3. Strengths The most widely reaching source of data. Great at picking up patterns of crime. Gets some demographic information like age, race, gender

4. Weaknesses Methodological issues including Lack of reporting by many police departments so crime is underestimated When the offender commits multiple crimes only the most serious is documented leaving out all others from the statistics Police departments may consider and label crimes a bit differently

5. National Crime Victimization Survey Developed to pick up on things the UCR misses Can compare the amount of victim reports with UCR reports and uncover the “Dark Figures of Crime” Allows victims who did not report a voice. Are able to gather more in depth information about the crime and the victims

6. Self Report Surveys Allows some to actually confess when they have not been caught and these figures can also be compared to UCR Sometimes the criminals have the worse memories of their crimes Can under or over report Self report surveys are anonymous so actually they have found people are usually honest

7. The Media and Crime How does the media portray crime in your area? Do you ever get tired of hearing only about crime? How powerful do you think the media is? Who uses the media in relationship to crime? What are some changes that could be made?