The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) is put together from voluntary reporting by police agencies once an offense has been reported. The agencies report arrests made for the crimes, victim’s demographic status (age, sex, religion, race, marital status, etc), and the place that the crime took place. Expanded forms also show hate crime statistics and homicides against police. I the expanded homicide format one can also obtain information about forgivable homicides conducted by individual persons as well as by police officers (FBI). Major downfalls of the UCR are that the reports are compiled together as one document from all of the jurisdictions, counties, regions, cities, states in the nation and that the reporting agencies only report the worst crime in a situation in which multiple crimes occurred at the same time. Different jurisdictions use different systems for classifying and reporting crimes. This means that some of the data may be inconsistent although the report compiles it together as the same form (Criminal Behavior).
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is compiled of similar data of the UCR accept that the data is compiled onto the survey by victims of crimes. The data includes all of the information that the UCR includes and it also contains information about certain details of crimes, like if the victim was related to the offender, a friend, a stranger, etc. It also provides data on the relation of the place of occurrence to the victim, i.e. was it the victim’s workplace, meeting place, home, grocery store, etc. The survey is able to collect data on the number of occurrences of that crime by that particular person or association to that particular victim. The survey also records information such as a change in marital status from one year to the next, whether the victim moved and if the crime was committed at the new place or residence or the old place of residence. Another factor of the survey that makes it more comprehensive is that the survey includes all cases of victimization reported by the victim rather than just the worst offense that occurred at one time. The survey allows information to be published on motives for reporting the offense, etc (NCVS Page). A major downfall of the survey is that the survey completed by victims of crime. Victims may refuse to answer the survey while others may feel heightened levels of emotion from small crimes and make the out of context on the survey. Others may lie about their relation to the offender to protect themselves (Criminal Behavior). The survey does report hate crimes and includes data on the evidence that subjects the crime to the definition of hate crime (NCVS Page).
One area of crime that I am interested in is gang crimes and motives of such crimes. The UCR has a limited ability to answer many questions in relation to this topic. I can collect data on the occurrence of such crimes, demographics of offenders, and level of offense, but in order to get an in depth view of the crimes, I need to use this data in coherence with the NCVS. I can compile information from the NCVS about which crimes are known by the victim to have occurred by a gang. Then I can find out what types of crimes they were committing. Were they petty crimes, hate crimes, violent crimes? What are the characteristics of the victims; are they common? The NCVS is not able to provide information on gangs that the victim does not know about in relation to the victimization.
References:
“Uniform Crime Reports”. Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Department of Justice. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm. (1998 - 2008) [FBI]
“Crime and Victim Statistics”. US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict.htm#ncvs. Last updated August 29, 2008. [NCVS Page]
Helfgott, Jaqueline B. “Criminal Behavior; Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice”. 2008 Sage Publications, Inc. California. (pp 15-18 & 18-22) [Criminal Behavior]
