¶ … history of crime measurement as well as the major strengths and limitations of current measurement techniques. I have also included the discussion regarding the importance of crime measurement in criminology. In the end, I have put emphasis on the need of the development of more crime measurement techniques.
The measurement of crime is done with the objective of monitoring and this is mostly done in the same manner as the measurement of "consumer prices, stock market activity, traffic fatalities, population, unemployment, and HIV infection rates" (Maxfield & Babbie, 2011). However, much more is done in measuring the crime instead of just counting things. An assortment of societal, fiscal, geographic, and medical concerns is measured for keeping a record of communal and monetary conditions, population size, age distribution and hazards to physical well-being of the people. Similarly, crime measurement has the main concern of keeping track of criminal behavior so that probable risks to public security can be monitored in an effective and efficient manner (Maxfield & Babbie, 2011).
Measuring the characteristics of crimes and criminals is important because of three reasons. Firstly, crime measurement helps in finding out the motivations behind the commitment of crime and this is done by testing various theories. Secondly, crime measurement is used for enhancing the knowledge of the distinctiveness of a range of offences. Thirdly, crime measurement facilitates criminal justice agencies to carry out their routine operations easily. However, it is rather complex to have knowledge of the exact numbers of crimes that are committed. There is no clear picture of the recorded crimes due to the various factors that influence them like victims' readiness to give their testimony about the crimes.
To cut a long story short, crime measurement techniques are used by criminologists for measuring the temperament and level of criminal behavior and the individuality, mind-sets, and background of immoral lawbreakers. Therefore, it is exceedingly significant to have an understanding of the process of the collection of such data so that it can be known how professional criminologists perform their duties and move on to solve different cases.
Uniform Crime Reports
In 1929, the International Association of Chiefs of Police envisaged the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for the fulfillment of the need of a dependable, uniform crime statistics for USA. The collection, publish, and archive of those statistics was made the responsibility of the FBI in 1930, at present, quite a lot of annual statistical publications are published from the facts and figures that are provided by USA city, county and state law enforcement agencies, more or less 17,000 in number. Thus, it has been since the 1930s that the FBI has governed the UCRP along with issuing cyclic measurement and evaluation of the nature and kind of misdemeanor/felonies across USA ("Summary of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program," 2013).
The major purpose of the Program is the generation of a dependable set of criminal statistics to be used by the law enforcement admin and management. The data contained in Uniform Crime Reports have turned out to be the most important social indicator in the United States of America. This is the reason why Americans follow Uniform Crime Reports to gain knowledge regarding the variations in crime level. These reports are also used by criminologists, social researchers, lawmakers, civic representatives, the media and students for different purposes ranging from research to planning ("Summary of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program," 2013).
Strengths and Limitations of UCRP
The reports generated under UCRP encompass AI/an population that is very large. The collection of data is done under a major policy issue and is involved with the system of judiciary. The data of many years is easily available consisting of an enormous anthology of published tables. These tables have an extensive use for tracking nationwide crimes. In addition, the records of master files can also be accessed on request. Master files means that the information contained in those files is not based on estimates but is actually the final data.
As far as the limitations are concerned, the reports contain summarized data because of which it is not possible to analyze the facts further than trouble-free tabulations based on geographic components, race and age. Furthermore, the data mostly consists of arrests' tabulations and information about the victim. Therefore, it is not easy to use this data for the determination of the no. Of persons being arrested in a year. Moreover, UCR only contains information of the crimes that are reported by the police agencies to the FBI. Thus, it can be easily concluded that the U.S. crime is not accurately exposed in the UCR. Also, such crime reports by the police to the FBI are...
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