Crime Statistics

Chapter 2 Measuring Crime Victimization – What The Data Tells Us Objectives Upon completion of this chapter, you will be able to: understand different ______ of crime victimization

The data we often use and interpret in victimology and crime victimization come from many different ______, including news media and governmental officials

The stories we hear from the popular media, as well as from our elected officials, do not always present an ______ portrait of crime or victimization

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) collects official crime data on crimes reported to the ______

The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) categorizes crimes into two parts. Part I, often referred to as the Index Offenses, is comprised of eight serious crimes: homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, ______, motor vehicle theft, and arson

The UCR was initiated in ______ as a uniform way to collect, publish, and house crime data for law enforcement administration and management

Over ______ law enforcement agencies voluntarily participate in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) program each year

Nearly one-quarter of the victims were between the ages of -

Only 43% of the individuals who were a victim of a violent crime reported the crime to ______

Far more incidents occurred than were actually reported to ______

Nearly two-thirds of the perpetrators identified by the victim were ______

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) was introduced in ______

The NCVS also collects demographic information about both victims and ______

Over 50% were a victim of ______

Figure 9. [ INSERT FIGURE 9 – HATE CRIMES REPORTED TO LAW ENFORCEMENT, BY SEXUAL ORIENTATION OR GENDER IDENTITY, 2018 ] National Incident Based Reporting System

First, and foremost, it only includes those crimes that are ______ to law enforcement.

This is problematic because often, multiple offenses are ______ simultaneously, thus the less serious crimes will not be reflected in the data.

Currently, the UCR collects offense information on the eight Part I crimes of homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and ______; and arrest data for 21 additional crime categories (lower-level offenses).

Part II offenses of the UCR include data for 21 additional types of offenses, and are comprised of low-level offenses, including: simple assault, forgery and counterfeiting, curfew offenses and loitering, embezzlement, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, drug offenses, fraud, gambling, liquor offenses, offenses against the family, prostitution, public drunkenness, runaways, sex offenses, stolen property, vandalism, vagrancy, and ______ offenses.

The crime rate is often used for comparison among jurisdictions even though the FBI warns against comparing crime rates and ranking jurisdictions into “safe” and “unsafe” categories. Other factors such as poverty, 26 urbanization, and population density, unemployment, and other social and economic factors may influence law enforcement agencies and consequently influence the ______.

First, the number of property crimes reported to the police have consistently dropped every year, for the past five years (see Figure 2). However, a different trend is observed with violent ______.

In fact, the number of larceny-thefts reported to police were four times greater than all of the ______ crimes combined.

The ______ barked

The ______ meowed

Since the adoption of the new definition, the number of rapes reported in the UCR have increased by roughly one-third each year (see Figure 5). Figure 5. 29 [ INSERT FIGURE – IMPACT OF CHANGE OF ______ DEFINITION ]

A total of 7,120 incidents of hate crimes were reported involving 8,819 victims (see Figure 6.). The overwhelming majority of these incidents were single-bias (e.g, only one type of victim was the focus of the crime) and the majority were based on racial or ethnic bias. Approximately 1 out of every 2 of the victims of these types of hate crimes were ______

In 2018, a total of 1,617 victims were targeted because of their ______ (see Figure 8). In 2018, the religious group most often targeted were Jewish victims, with approximately four times as many incidents recorded among this group as for the second most populous group, Muslims.

The third most prevalent hate crime reported to law enforcement involved individuals who were targeted because of either their sexual ______ or gender identity. In 2018, a total of 1,634 victims experienced this type of hate crime (see Figure 9). Over 50% of these victims were gay males. Lesbian women and transgender individuals experienced similar rates of victimization.