Explain the “crime index.” Cover the uses of the crime index, as well as its weaknesses as an indicator of crime rates.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The UCR “crime index,” from which the crime rate is calculated, consists of Part I crimes: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson; Part I crimes consist of the index crimes, major felonies that are believed to be serious, to occur frequently, and to have a greater likelihood of being reported to the police. In 2004, the FBI decided to stop reporting the crime index and to report a violent crime index and property crime index instead. An advisory board had felt that the crime index had been distorted by including the category of larceny-theft. A principal difficulty with the UCR crime rate as an index of crime in the United States is that it is an unweighted index. That is, each crime, whether murder or bicycle theft, is added into the total index with no weight given to the relative seriousness of the offense. Thus, no monetary or psychological value is assigned. For instance, a city with 100 burglaries per 100,000 population and one with 100 homicides per 100,000 population would have the same crime rate.