Measuring Crime and Trends in the media

What is the population of the USA?

341 million

Population of Jamaica?

30 million

Population of Texas?

30 million

what is the number of homicides in the USA and Texas and Jamaica

Usa: 22,000

Tx: 2,000

Jam: 1200

how do we calcute the crime rate?

total # of crimes/ total population x 100,000

How do we measure crime in the U.S?

• Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) ( the one we use in class the most)

• Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR)

• National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

what is UCR?

• nationwide program run by the fbi since 1930

• Focuses on reported crimes known to the police.

• collects data locally , state and federal

what are the key measures of crime?

• part 1 ( index) offenses: most serious crimes ( rape, violent murder etc)

• part 2 offenses; less serious crimes ( fraud, drug offenses, vandalism)

what is the UCR being replaced by?

• The NIBRS( national incident-based reporting system) which gives more detailed info.

what are the advantages of the UCR

 Nationwide coverage – standardized data from thousands of police

agencies across the U.S.

 Long historical record – allows for trend analysis going back to the

1930s.

 Serious crimes covered – captures offenses of major concern (homicide,

robbery, etc.).

 Useful for geographic comparisons – can compare cities, counties, and

states.

 Official source – widely trusted and often cited in research, media, and

policy.

what are the disadvantages of the UCR?

• Underreporting: Many crimes never come to police attention (e.g., sexual

assault, domestic violence).

 Police recording bias: Agencies may classify or record crimes differently;

some may “downgrade” offenses.

 Limited detail: UCR focuses on counts of crimes, not circumstances (e.g.,

victim-offender relationship, situational context).

 Hierarchy rule: Only the most serious offense in an incident is recorded

(e.g., if a robbery and assault occur together, only the robbery might be

counted).

 Agency participation is voluntary: Not all law enforcement agencies

submit complete data.

what is the dark figure of crime?

• crime that has not been reported or recorded

what is the NCVS?

• nationally representative household survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice

Statistics (BJS) since 1973.

 Interviews about 90,000 households and 160,000 individuals age 12+ each year.

 Collects information on people’s experiences with crime, regardless of whether those

crimes were reported to the police

what types of crime does the NCVS cover?

• Violent crimes: rape/sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, simple assault.

 Property crimes: burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft.

 Excludes homicide, arson, and crimes against businesses or institutions.

How does the NCVS work?

 Respondents are interviewed every 6 months for 3 years.

 Questions ask about victimization experiences, reporting to police, and consequences of crime

what are the advantages of NCVS?

 Captures unreported crime – reveals the “dark figure of crime” missed by

police data.

 Victim-centered data – includes details about victims, offenders, context,

and whether crimes were reported to police (and why or why not).

 Standardized methodology – consistent national data since the 1970s.

 Helps evaluate police reporting practices – shows which crimes tend to

go unreported.

 Rich detail – covers demographics, injury, financial loss, fear of crime, and

perceptions of police.

what are the disadvantges of NCVS?

• Excludes some crimes – no homicide data, no crimes against

businesses, no crimes involving people under 12.

 Reliance on memory/recall – respondents may forget, misremember, or

misclassify incidents.

 Sensitive crimes underreported – sexual assault and intimate partner

violence may still be under-disclosed due to stigma.

 Sampling limitations – excludes homeless populations, incarcerated

individuals, and those in institutional settings (who may face higher

victimization rates).

 Not great for local trends – sample is designed for national and some

state-level estimates, not individual cities/counties.

What is the fear of crime?

 Emotional response to the threat of criminal victimization

 Includes anxiety, worry, and perceived vulnerability

 Distinct from actual crime rates

 Key idea: Fear of crime is a social perception, not a direct reflection

of crime levels

Why study fear of crime?

 Shapes everyday behavior (where people go, when they go out)

 Influences mental and physical health

 Drives public opinion and criminal justice policy

 Often more politically powerful than crime itself

what are the dimensions of the fear of crime?

 Emotional fear: How afraid someone feels

 Perceived risk: How likely someone thinks victimization is

 Behavioral responses: Actions taken to avoid crime

 Surveys often measure all three

fear of crime vs actual crime?

 Fear is often weakly correlated with local crime rates

 People may fear crime even when crime is declining

 Crime can be high where fear is low, and vice versa

 This mismatch is a central puzzle in criminology

Neighborhood conditions and fear

 Physical disorder: graffiti, abandoned buildings

 Social disorder: public intoxication, loitering

 Residential instability

 Often discussed through Broken Windows Theory

How does the media and politics shape fear?

• News media overrepresents violent crime

 Fear is amplified by sensational coverage

 Political actors mobilize fear to justify punitive policies

 Fear of crime is also a political resource

How do the policies now represent the fear of crime?

 Increased policing and surveillance

 “Tough on crime” laws

 Environmental design strategies

 Fear often drives policy more than crime data

what are the key takeaways of crime?

 Fear of crime is socially constructed

 It is shaped by neighborhood context and social ties

 Fear has real consequences regardless of crime rates

 Understanding fear is essential for effective policy

what was the study that was done in israel and what were the main points?

• It was called “how the ultraich use media ownership as a political investment”

• It talked about how the ultrarich can shape poltics through media ownership”

Instances when crimes do not come to the attention of law enforcement or some other criminal justice agency are referred to as the dark figure of crime.

True

In the 1960s, the FBI developed the ______ to gain more information on victims and offenders of murder.

Supplementary Homicide Reports

The FBI developed an enhanced UCR Program which is named the

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

______ collects data from participating agencies on officer line-of-duty deaths and assaults.

LEOKA

______ type of death occurs when the officer is on or off duty and acting in an official capacity while reacting to a situation that would ordinarily fall within the scope of his or her official duties as a law enforcement officer.

Line of duty

Unofficial measures of crime, such as the ______, further broaden our understanding of crime with information from official measures of crime.

NCVS

What criminal offense is not measured in the NCVS?

Murder

______ collect data by asking respondents to provide information about themselves, usually as to whether they have engaged in certain forms of illegal behavior.

• Self-report surveys

The ______ collects information to measure substance and alcohol use patterns among youths.

MTF

In 2004, the FBI discontinued use of ______ because the way crimes were classified and scored under it resulted in inaccurate indicators of criminality in specific jurisdictions.

The crime index

According to the hierarchy rule of UCR crime classification, if an offender committed a burglary by breaking into a home, vandalism by spray painting the outside of the home, and a larceny by stealing a laptop inside the home, only the ______ would be reported or scored.

Burglary

In addition to the SHR, which two agencies collect data on homicides?

CDC & NVSS

The UCR was primarily used by law enforcement agencies, and soon other agencies started to use the data for planning and policy. This led to a need for more detailed data and the establishment of the

NBRSS

The NCVS does not collect information on homicides, arson, commercial crimes, and

crimes against children under the age of 12

The NPS Program collects data on

data on state and federal prisoners

______ analysis of crime focuses on crime places. One major aspect is mapping crimes which provide information as location, distance, direction, and pattern.

Spatial

Criminologists have also explored whether there is a relationship between criminal activity and location. These criminologists attempt to understand crime with what are called ______ theories.

Social ecological

An outlier is an extreme value that significantly differs from the rest of the distribution.

True

Compiling and analyzing crime data can be used to justify programs and policies that try to address criminal activity

true

Law enforcement agencies across the United States began collecting crime data in 2010.

false

Hate crimes are not separate, distinct crimes, but rather traditional offenses motivated by the offender’s bias.

true

The primary purpose of the NCVS is to provide insight about crimes that are not reported to law enforcement agencies.

True

Prior to 2013, the UCR measured rape as a crime against women only, while the NCVS measures rape as a crime against both sexes.

True