Analyzing UCR & Crime Trends: A Comprehensive Study - Essay Sample

Introduction

The assignment will focus on three key issues. The first part will be to provide an in-depth analysis of what the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is, starting from its definition to some of the key elements surrounding it. Secondly, I will include in the assignment the description of the strategy used for gathering data in this report and the reason as to why the strategy was chosen among others. The last part of the assignment will be a discussion on crime trends, providing an analysis of contrast of four towns, including Happy Town, Frown Town, Smooth Town, and Cool Town over the past five years. I will then close it will a conclusion recapping all the information discussed in the assignment.

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Description of the Uniform Crime Report

The Uniform Crime Reporting Program is a nationwide and a cooperative statistical effort comprising of over 18,000 county, university and college, city, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies that volunteer to report data on the criminal issues brought to their attention (Kaplan, 2017). The Uniform Crime Report's primary objective is to generate reliable information that can be used in law enforcement administration, management, and operation. However, over the years, the data has risen to become of the highest social indicators in the country. Its conception was done by the International Association of Chiefs of Police 1929 to meet the need for reliable uniform crime statistics for the nation (Steffensmeier, Feldmeyer, Harris, & Ulmer, 2011).

For all the researchers, students of criminal justice, members of the media, law enforcement executives, and the public at large, the program has always been the starting point. In 1930, the FBI was given the duty to collect, publish, and archive the statistics prepared by the UCR report (Kaplan, 2017). Currently, the UCR Program collects information on forcible rape, non-negligent manslaughter and murder, robbery, larceny-theft, aggravated assault, burglary, arson, motor vehicle theft, and human trafficking.

There are four data collections in the UCR, and these included the Summary Reporting System (SRS), the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), the Hate Crime Statistics Program, and the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Program. For each of these data collections, the UCR Program publishes annual reports and a preliminary semiannual report that summarizes the data every winter. Besides, there are also special compilations like Human Trafficking, Cargo Theft Report, and NIBRS topical studies (Steffensmeier et al., 2011). On top of the four significant data collections mentioned above, the program will also be responsible for the management of the new National Use-of-Force Data Collection.

UCR Advisory Groups

There are certain groups of government agencies and other associations that are pertinent to the UCR. Among them are the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) and the Criminal Justice Information Systems Committees (CJISC), which provided essential links between the FBI and local law enforcement (Kaplan, 2017). The CJISC belongs to the International Association of Chiefs of Police which represents the thousands of police departments available throughout the nation, and the National Sheriffs' Association which serves sheriffs throughout the country perform the crucial role of encouraging agencies to fully participate in the UCP program (Steffensmeier et al., 2011). Both the two committees are serving in the capacity of advisory units concerning the program operations of the UCR.

Data-Gathering Strategy

The data-gathering strategy I used in this report is document review, which is the collection of data by reviewing the existing documents. Such documents are both internal documents to the various organizations that I have mentioned above, such as the National Sheriffs' Association and the Uniform Crime Report as well. The documents I reviewed for this report were majorly electronic, and they included reports, meeting minutes, program logs, newsletters, performance ratings, journals, and news articles, among others. Several factors led to me using this strategy. Firstly, it was easy to gather background information through reviewing existing documents, as it helps in understanding the history of the UCR and its operation. Secondly, a review of documents made it easy to determine if the program implementation reflected its plans. Besides, the use of document review was chosen for the obvious reasons for its lower costs compared to if I were to collect the data on my own.

Discussion of the Crime Trends

In 2015, Happy Town had an increase in significant crimes at five percent, and according to the statistics released recently, these were due to the increasing cases of theft. The only categories that increased were those crimes categorized as Part 1 offenses, which include battery, criminal sexual assault, murder, aggravated assault and battery, theft, burglary, and arson. In 2014, there were 214 cases of theft reported, which was higher than the previous year of 167 cases. In 2014 there was only one arson reported (Strayer University, 2017).

In Frown Town, the police have reported a drop in the village annual crime rate by 17 percent, and according to authorities, such changes are attributed to by arrests, criminal investigations, and community involvement. The authorities here state that they heavily rely on citizens and the business community to fight crime in the town. According to the Town's Police Chief, he noted that the more ears and eyes they have outside there, the safer the community will be (Strayer University, 2017).

According to preliminary statistics from the police department in Smooth Town, in at least five years, significant crimes in the town are at its lowest. Data shows that such drops are attributed to the drastic decrease in property theft crimes last year to 260, which is below the average of 225 for five years. In 2016, there were 115 crimes against people, and this as well as slightly below the five-year norm (Strayer University, 2017). looking at other towns of the same size as Smooth Town, the crime rate in this town is very low, and according to the police chief, the authorities here are proud and promise to continue working well to ensure they even get lower.

According to the authorities in Cool Town, 2017 marked the year when the rate of crime was at its lowest, and this was attributed to the authorities' partnership with the community, which helped them reach such a target in five years. In that year, the crime rate in the city fell by four percent, and this is according to the police department statistics. In 2017, violent crimes fell slightly more than four percent, and this included crime against people (Strayer University, 2017). On the other hand, there was no change in the rates of property crime, and the police confirmed that this result was achieved due to the people staying cool.

References

Kaplan, J. (2017). Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data: National Incident-Based Reporting System, 2015. Retrieved from https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/100713/version/V1/view?flag=follow&pageSelected=1&pageSize=10&sortOrder=(?fileSize)&sortAsc=true

Steffensmeier, D., Feldmeyer, B., Harris, C. T., & Ulmer, J. T. (2011). Reassessing trends in black violent crime, 1980-2008: Sorting out the "Hispanic effect" in Uniform Crime Reports arrests, National Crime Victimization Survey offender estimates, and US prisoner counts. Criminology, 49(1), 197-251. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2010.00222.x

Strayer University (2017). Crime and Criminal Behavior. Retrieved from https://www.strayer.edu/online-degrees/bachelors/criminal-justice/crime-and-criminal-behavior