Explain the two most important sources of crime statistics.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. Two of the most important sources of crime statistics are the FBI's Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and the U.S. Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Each has its strengths and weaknesses.The UCR data are crimes reported to the police and arrests made each year. The statistics are useful in examining trends over time, but the UCR does not include offenses such as corporate crime, kidnapping, and Internet crimes; simple assaults (those not involving weapons or serious injury); nor the 53 percent of all violent crimes (e.g., rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) and 65 percent of property crimes (e.g., burglary and motor-vehicle theft) that are not reported to the police (Gramlich, 2017). Because of such limitations, many sociologists also use victimization surveys to measure the extent of crime.A victimization survey interviews people about being crime victims. Because the response rates are at least 90 percent, the NCVS offers a more accurate picture of many offenses than does the UCR. The NCVS also includes both reported and unreported crime, and isn't affected by police discretion in deciding whether to arrest an offender.Still, many victims don't report a crime to either the police or interviewers for a variety of reasons: they fear reprisal for getting the offender in trouble, believe that the police can't or won't do anything to help, or the crime, particularly rape, is too painful to discuss. Some people don't want to admit having been victims-especially when the perpetrator is a family member or friend. Others may be too embarrassed to tell an interviewer that they were victimized while drunk or engaged in drug sales.