Crime Statistics Unreported Essay

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The majority of what is known about crime, is from crime statistics that are released through the federal bureau of the census. According to the first section of this reading the federal bureau of census releases surveys to several different law enforcement agencies, community members and schools to survey the amount of crime that is reported to police as well as some that has gone unreported. Crime statistics are an important aspect of the judicial system because they are what decide laws and create an image of crime for the public. Three surveys used in these statistical findings are uniform crime reports (UCR), Self – Report Studies, and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Although these studies help with crime management they can be flawed at times. Several criminologists have argued that police may be biased in their enforcement toward victimless crimes; in particular they may focus on member of minority groups and engage in racial profiling (pg8). This section of reading also suggest that it is critical for users of crime statistics to read …show more content…
In many cases there is crime that will go unreported because law enforcement reports less criminal activity to these sources to make there area seem more peaceful. In 1998 Philadelphia police failed to report 13000 to 37000 major crimes, Including robberies, aggravated assaults and thefts. The review of the city crime statistics by the city comptroller’s office showed that other crimes were wrongly classified as less serious crimes (pg. 9). As seen in this excerpt from the book there has been cases where information has gone unreported and this is not only from law enforcement, there are times that crimes have happened in families and are never reported due to the relationship between the victim and the

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