Crime data can come from four main sources: police records, court records, victim reports, and offender reports. Each source has advantages and limitations in providing information about crime rates and characteristics. The document then reviews several key data collection systems, including the Uniform Crime Report (UCR), National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), Offender-Based Transaction Statistics (OBTS), National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), Drug Use Forecasting (DUF), and National Youth Study (NYS). It discusses the methods, strengths, and limitations of each approach.

1. Crime DataCrime Data
Sources
Methods
Issues

2. Data on crime can come
from any of four
sources:
• Ask the police
• Ask the courts
• Ask the victim
• Ask the offender
• Each of these has advantages and
disadvantages. Detail follows.

3. The four sources of crime data
Uniform Crime
Reports (UCR)
(Ask the police)
NIBRS - Incident-
Based Reporting
-- Future FBI
reporting
Offender-Based
Transaction
Statistics (OBTS)
(Ask the courts)
National Criminal
Victimization
Survey (NCVS)
(Ask the victim)
Drug Use
Forecasting (DUF)
(Ask the

4. Uniform Crime Report
• Prepared by the FBI at the
national level and by many state
crime commissions (including
Ohio's) so as to be compatible
with the FBI.

5. Compiling the UCR
• Part I Offenses: Eight severe
crimes that form the crime rate.
Hierarchical order of the list is
important; most severe crimes are
listed before those deemed less
severe.

6. Homicide
• Unlawful Murder. The unlawful
killing with malice aforethought.
• Manslaughter. The unlawful
killing without malice
aforethought.
• Death by Negligence. Death due to
negligence of a person other than
the victim; occurs at a time other
than during the commission of an
unlawful act.

7. Felony/Murder
Doctrine
• If death occurs during or because
of an unlawful act, murder charges
will be brought if that act was a
felony and manslaughter charges
will be brought if that act was a
misdemeanor.

8. Rape/sexual Assault
(Excludes Rape-murders)
Rape by force. The "carnal knowledge"
of a female by force against her will.
Excludes statutory rape and other sex
offenses.
Assault to rape. Assaults and
attempts to rape.

9. Robbery
• the forcible taking of property from
another against that person's will.
Robbery is larceny plus assault!
(Category excludes robberies in which
a rape or a homicide is present.)
• Armed robbery. Any object is
employed to force compliance or
threaten it.
• Strong Arm robbery. No weapon is
used, but physical means of violence
are present. Includes muggings, etc.

10. Felony Assault
• the attempt or threat to do physical
injury to another with unlawful
force. At the felony level, victim
must suffer–or be in danger of
suffering– great bodily harm.
(Excludes assaults with intent to
rape, rob, or kill.)
• Gun or other firearm
• Knife or other cutting instrument
• Other dangerous weapon
• Hands, fists, etc.

11. Burglary
• The unlawful entry or attempted
forcible entry of any structure to
commit a felony or larceny. (Excludes
any burglary in which a crime against
person is also involved.)

12. Forcible Entry
• Forcible entry.
Includes the use
of a master key
or concealment
inside followed
by breaking out
(i.e., forcible
exit).
• Unlawful entry
(without force)
• Attempted
forcible entry

13. Larceny
• The unlawful taking of another's
property with the intent to
deprive him or her of ownership.
• (Excludes any larceny involving a
crime against person. Also
excludes larcenies involving a
burglary. Also excludes larcenies
of motor vehicles.)
• NOTE: "Larceny" and "theft" are
synonyms!

14. Motor Vehicle Theft
• Motor Vehicle Theft - larceny or
attempted larceny of an
automobile.

15. Arson
• Illegal destruction of property via fire
• Regardless of ownership

16. Crime Rate
• Anytime the
phrase "crime
rate" is used
in official
publications or
in newspaper
reports, it
refers only to
the aggregate
of the above
UCR Part I
Index offenses.

17. Problems with UCR
• Victim may not report the
offense to police for fear of
reprisals from the assailant.
• Assailant may be a friend or
relative of the victim; the
victim may decide not to cause
trouble.
• Victim may define the crime as
trivial and not worth the time
or effort to report it.

18. Problems with UCR 2
• Victim may not want the publicity
that could go along with reporting
the offense.
• Victim may define the police as
ineffective and thus reporting the
offense would do no good.

19. Problems with police
professionalism
• Reform orientation of a police
department affects the crime rate;
the fewer crimes you ignore, the
higher the crime rate.
• Side issues may affect the crime
rate; the more crimes you ignore,
the lower the crime rate.

20. The Dialectics of
Increasing Police
• Increased professionalism and
resources in police leads to an
increase simply because more
crimes are seen
• May be politically biased; in
order to get a budget increase,
police may be operating under
arrest quotas in order to ensure
that the crime rate goes up.

21. Problems with the UCRProblems with the UCR
structurestructure
• Hierarchy rule: if more than one
offense is committed in a particular
incident, only the most serious offense
is recorded in the UCR. For example,
assault/rape/murder is recorded only as
a murder for UCR purposes. The less
severe offenses are ignored.
• Participation by local police and
sheriff's offices is totally voluntary.
Data are thus not complete. Data may
thus also be biased.
• Many important crimes, and their impact
on people are totally ignored by the
UCR Part I index.

22. Part II offenses include the
following:
• Simple assault
• Forgery and counterfeiting
• Fraud, Embezzlement
• Stolen property: buying, receiving,
possessing
• Vandalism, Vagrancy, Disorderly conduct
• Weapons: carrying, possessing
• Prostitution and commercialized vice
• Sex offenses (other than forcible rape and
prostitution)
• Narcotic drug laws
• Gambling, Liquor laws, Drunkenness

23. “Other”
• None of these offenses in Part II
is counted as part of the "crime
rate".
• "Other" is the largest single
category on this list (see Table
2.2, p. 55). If the largest
category is "other", you haven't
defined your categories very well.
You don't really know what's in
your very largest category.

24. NIBRS
• National Incident Based Reporting System
• Will shift to incident-based
reporting; for each incident will
collect detail on when it
occurred, the kind of weapon used
(if any), the type and value of
property stolen or damaged, the
age, sex, and race of both victim
and offender, the relationship
between the offender and the
victim (if any), whether an arrest
was made, etc.

25. No more "hierarchy
rule"
• If more than one crime was
committed in a single incident,
all will be reported under the
enhanced UCR.
• If an incident includes a
kidnapping, rape, and murder, only
the most serious (murder) would be
reported on the current UCR
• NIBRS will list all three offenses
in the incident.

26. OBTSOBTS
• Offender-Based Transaction
Statistics (OBTS) (Ask the
courts)
• Tries to answer the question:
"When people get arrested, what
happens to them?" Studies the
justice system as a flowing
process rather than as a static
snapshot.

27. OBTS on the Web
• National Archives of Criminal Justice Data

28. Offender-based system
• Contains one record per offender.
(UCR, at least in its current form,
contains one record per charged
offense.)
• In theory, gives us the ability to
"track" a given offender through the
system in multiple encounters. Each
offender has an ID.
• It's encrypted, and the data are
therefore confidential--but it should
be unique to each offender across
offenses.

29. Back-end statistical
reporting
• Record is generated for an
individual when his/her case is
disposed and sentenced.
• This record contains historical
info arrest, trial, and sentence.
(UCR, in contrast, is front-end.
• Contains only arrest-centered data
because the record is generated at
the beginning of the process.)

30. OBTS vs. UCR
• OBTS shows fewer felonies than
does the UCR. OBTS is likely to
be the more accurate.
• Police fill out the UCR– if they
think something looks like a
felony, they record it as one.

31. Prosecutors
• OBTS is filled out be
prosecutors—Who know what a
felony is and whether they
think a conviction is likely if
any particular offense is
charged as a felony.
• Coming to be seen as a major
analysis tool of the future.
Allen Barnes, Statistical
Analysis Center, Anchorage:
"They even do it in Ohio, of

32. Problems with OBTS
• Includes only felony dispositions.
No infractions or misdemeanors.
• Based on internal state law in
each state. Since state law is
not uniform, different states will
treat a particular offense
differently.
• May be a felony in one state and a
misdemeanor (or not illegal) in
another.

33. Problems 2
 Voluntary as to participation.
Only 18 states currently have OBTS
systems. And not all of those
report within the national
guidelines.
 (California's OBTS system preceded
the national guidelines, so CA
uses its own for internal
consistency.)
• Voluntary as to treatment of data.
Many missing data fields.

34. ID encrypting
• ID encrypting is performed
differently in different states,
so it's not possible to track
offenders across state systems.
• (Pennsylvania encrypts ID's
differently for each incident, so
you can't even track them within
PA. Which shoots down one of the
major goals of the system.)

35. ID encrypting is notnot
perfectperfect
• It's based on the name given to the
court. "John Smith" and "John A. Smith"
would be encrypted differently even if
they're the same person at two different
encounters.
• On the other hand, "John Smith" would be
encrypted the same even if they were two
different people.
• Record includes information from arrest
to disposition but does not include
appeal info. If sentence is later
reduced or overturned, OBTS will not show

36. National Criminal
Victimization Survey
(NCVS) (Ask the victim)
• Until 12/91 known as the
"National Crime Survey" (NCS)
• Sample survey. We don't know
who all the victims are, but
if we take a large enough
random sample of all people
in the population, we'll end
up with a sample of victims.

37. NCVS on the Web
• US Department of Justice, crime and victim statistics
• National Crime Victimization Survey Guide
• Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics

38. National SurveyNational Survey
• National survey is conducted through ISR at
the University of Michigan. Includes broad
national sample plus intensive samples of
largest major metropolitan areas. (For
methodology students, this makes it a
stratified random sample.)
• Any individual respondent is included for
seven consecutive six-month waves. (For
CJ251 students, this makes it a perpetual
panel.)
• Questions are phrased so as to describe
offenses in common language rather than
legal language.

39. Sample NCVS Question
• READ TO RESPONDENT: "Now I am going to ask you about any
crimes that may have been inflicted on you in the last 12 months."
During the last 12 months, did anyone break into your home or
apartment and steal something?
• A. Was the crime reported to the police?
• B. Why was the crime not reported to the police?
• C. Were you satisfied or not satisfied with the manner in
which the complaint was handled after it was reported to the
police?
• D. Where did the burglar enter your home or apartment?
• E. What time of day did the burglary occur?
• F. What, if anything, was stolen?
• G. Was the stolen property recovered?
• H. If all or part of your stolen property was recovered, who
recovered it

40. Problems with victimization
data
• Victim may not choose to be a
respondent for the survey at all.
• Bias comes in here because refusal
rates in sample surveys are
especially high in low-income, high-
crime areas of a city.
• Also if you are a victim, you may be
less inclined to answer the question
than if you are not. This leads to
underestimation of victimization.

41. NCVS Problems 2
• Victim may not report the incident to
the interviewer because the assailant
was a friend or relative or because
it was considered unimportant
• The victim forgot about it when asked
during the survey.
• Victim may report crimes that
actually took place more than a year
before the interview. This will lead
to overestimation of victimization.

42. Drug Use Forecasting
(DUF)
(Ask the offender)
• DUF data are collected in booking
facilities in selected cities
throughout the United States.
• Program began in the borough of
Manhattan in 1987.
• Objective way of asking the
offender about recent drug use.

43. How DUF works
• During each quarter of the year data
are collected for approximately 14
consecutive evenings.
• Trained local staff obtain voluntary
anonymous interviews and urine
specimens with newly booked
arrestees.
• Specimens are sent to a central
testing site to standardize results
(except Phoenix and Portland, which
test locally).

44. Response Rates
• Response rates are consistently
high, with over 90% of arrestees
approached agreeing to be
interviewed. Approximately 80% of
those interviewed provide a urine
specimen (i.e., approximately 72%
of those approached).

45. National Youth Study
(NYS) (Ask the
offender)
Self-report study. Instead of
objective data, we're going to ask
folks what they've done--whether
or not the police have heard about
it.
• Main NYS runs through IBS at
University of Colorado; other
smaller samples may be taken
elsewhere for other purposes (Boys
Town Follow up, for example--
unconnected to NYS, but used NYS
methodology and some of their

46. NYS on the Web
• National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
• National Youth Gang Survey

47. Panel Study
 NYS itself is a panel study; same
questions asked of same
respondents at repeated points in
time, generally two-year intervals
Survey, either sample or
purposeful

48. Disadvantages of self-
report studies:
• Usual disadvantages of surveys are
relevant
• In addition, respondent is being
asked to admit to things that are
illegal; may not want to admit
them.
• Truthfulness is a critical issue.
Respondents may choose to lie
about things they did in violation
of the law.

49. Confidentiality of the
data is critical
• Since respondents may well admit to
offenses in the survey that they
haven't actually been arrested
• Should not even dream of doing this
kind of study without being granted a
confidentiality certificate by the
federal government provides you as a
researcher with protection in case you
are asked by police to reveal your data
in court.
• Ethics says you can't reveal your data;
certificate, if it has been granted,
says you probably won't go to jail for
standing on your ethical position.

50. Variety of Methods
Criminologists use a
variety of methods &
perspectives to research
crime and criminality