Measures of Crime: Rape and Assault

Introduction

In criminal justice, extensive analysis is an integral part of the system. The review is handled differently by different institutions and publication. The criminal justice sector is composed of three institutions in the systems, which are, the courts, the police, and corrections. There more than often arise differences among the institutions and publications too, this is on the way data is interpreted and measured in the field. In the United States, crimes are measured by two ways as established. The two forms are namely; the uniform crime report (UCR) and the national crime victimization survey (NCVS). Both methods have different ways of measuring the extent of criminal activities in the country. This paper will use two crimes to have a look at the methods used by the two means are used to measure crimes. The two offenses to evaluate are rape and assault.

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Rape

By the UCR

The UCR establishment was in the 1930s; the federal Bureau of investigations administers it. It is used to assemble data that has been reported to the police. It accommodates the statistical data as relayed from the local areas. Thus any crime that has happened in the localities can be compiled by the UCR and then put to analysis. It means that any local information that might not get a broader recognition can be cited from the databases of the UCR adequately.

With that said, the question which arises is, how many cases of rape are reported to the police? (Chen & Ullman, 2010). That is what will validate whether the UCR is proper or not for the cases of rape. In the United States modern day society, not everyone fetches the confidence to go and report instances of abuse to the police. It happens for a number reasons; More relevantly because they find no solution after going to report them. When case matters are reported to the police, there are more than often fewer reactions from the police, all they do is write a report on the issue and offer a medication request from the doctors. It is not of sufficient help to the victim; it does not provide justice to them that they would have wished to get. Another reason why people will not report cases of rape to the police is the feeling of shame and unworthy, when one gets raped, they feel shameful and guilty of themselves for the crime. That makes them unable to report the issue to the police who might make the matter known to the surroundings against the wish of the victim.

Thus, with the fact that not so many cases are reported to the police, the UCR will not be the most amicable way to measure the crime rate of rape. There will arise the need to change the mindset of people about reporting rape for the UCR to become applicable. The police require showing the public that they are right to be relied on anytime. It can only happen through offering justice to the victims when such cases arise.

By the NCVS

The United States census bureau administers the national crime victimization survey. Its establishment was in 1973. It is a measurement representing the telephone services sampling of around forty thousand homesteads. Which are used to make estimations of how many were put under victimization by one of seven incidences in the ended year. The crimes that are carried out by NCVS are the only ones which are surveyable through sampling. It means the elimination of murder crimes because the dead cannot be interviewed on telephone services.

The NCVs will be acute to correct the other offenses because the informants will be relaying information to people they do not know. It eradicates the fear of rendering information unlike going to offer information to people who know you and pose a threat of spreading it out. The only problem comes because one cannot be able to do a locality analysis, this is because the NCVS makes a broad national sampling without basing it on specific locations (Tables, 2008). Making this method only acute for cases of national measurements.

Based on the discussed information, NCVS is the most acceptable method while measuring crimes of rape. It is because the people do not have trust in the police. Thus cannot go ahead and report rape cases, but are ready to give the information to anonymous people. And since the NCVS allow the people to communicate with unnamed sources with the assurance of confidentiality, the victims opt to be open. It makes the method to be apt for the issues of rape.

Assault

By UCR

Assault tends to be the threat towards an offensive or harmful contact with another person. When the threats come to reality, it is now called a battery. Few people tend to worry about the assault, what matters most to them is when the actualization of the threat comes to be. With that, only a few people care about reporting the issue to the police (Lynch & Jarvis, 2008). The public takes this to be something light which does not deserve a lot of concern, after all; even on reporting the case to the police, it will not accrue a lot of weight. With those thoughts lingering in the mind of many, only a few cases of assault are reported. Instead, people report the battery cases.

By the NCVS

Whenever assault happens, people keep them in mind and hides the fear with themselves. Just because they tend not to report the assault cases does not mean they do not feel the weight of it. But because the cases arise from grudges or former friendships which get broken, they tend to keep the concerns for themselves. Such cases a revelation happen when a third party who is anonymous to the two comes to place. The disclosure tends to happen because there is presumed confidentiality of information rendered.

Conclusion

The NCVS is the acutest method for both crimes of rape and assault. The cases of rape and assault have little accumulations in the police records. It happens because the people are not assured of information conservativeness and privacy required in cases of rape and assault. When there is no reporting of the issues, it becomes hard to find anything concrete through the UCR. But because the NCVS grants a chance of integrity to the people using an anonymous third party, they can be able to acknowledge victimizations of crimes they did not even report.

References

Chen, Y., & Ullman, S. E. (2010). Women's reporting of sexual and physical assaults to police in the National Violence Against Women Survey. Violence Against Women, 16(3), 262-279.

Lynch, J. P., & Jarvis, J. P. (2008). Missing data and imputation in the uniform crime reports and the effects on national estimates. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 24(1), 69-85.

Tables, S. (2008). National Crime Victimization Survey. US Department of Justice, available.