While the Uniform Crime Reports were ground breaking for tracking crime data nationally, there were many flaws with the system. The Federal Bureau of Investigation would send out paper reports for the local agency to fill out and return. This system leaves a lot of room for human bias, as well as honest mistakes, when reporting crimes. These reasons alone are enough to question whether the reports were an accurate account of crime in the country. Uniform Crime reports also had several other shortcomings that lead researchers to question their validity. The single most important shortcoming of the Uniform Crime Reports is the hierarchy rule. When there is more than on crime committed by one person at one time the Uniform Crime Reports used
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According to Inciadri, even though the Federal Bureau of Investigation attempted to set clear definitions of the crimes they collected data on many agencies did not use these definitions to compile their data which leads to inaccurate reporting (1978). Since not all agencies were required to report information to the Bureau information would have to be estimated, or be incomplete (Inciadri 1978). Lastly, in some cases Inciadri found that the information reported for the Uniform Crime Reports were not consistent with what that agency had in their own files and reporting system (1978). These were just a few reasons that Uniform Crime Reports needed to be reviewed and updated to ensure the most accurate data was …show more content…
Department of Justice, 2000). The study determined that many of the short comings of the current system needed to be addressed due to the changes in crime and technology (U.S. Department of Justice, 2000). From the results of that study a new crime data reporting system was created called the National Incident-Based Reporting System. According to the U.S. Department of Justice,
In order to ensure that it fulfills its purpose, NIBRS has adopted the following goals:
1. To enhance the quantity, quality, and timeliness of crime statistical data collected by the law enforcement community.
2. To improve the methodology used for compiling, analyzing, auditing, and publishing the collected crime data (U.S. Department of Justice, 2000,
According to Inciadri, even though the Federal Bureau of Investigation attempted to set clear definitions of the crimes they collected data on many agencies did not use these definitions to compile their data which leads to inaccurate reporting (1978). Since not all agencies were required to report information to the Bureau information would have to be estimated, or be incomplete (Inciadri 1978). Lastly, in some cases Inciadri found that the information reported for the Uniform Crime Reports were not consistent with what that agency had in their own files and reporting system (1978). These were just a few reasons that Uniform Crime Reports needed to be reviewed and updated to ensure the most accurate data was …show more content…
Department of Justice, 2000). The study determined that many of the short comings of the current system needed to be addressed due to the changes in crime and technology (U.S. Department of Justice, 2000). From the results of that study a new crime data reporting system was created called the National Incident-Based Reporting System. According to the U.S. Department of Justice,
In order to ensure that it fulfills its purpose, NIBRS has adopted the following goals:
1. To enhance the quantity, quality, and timeliness of crime statistical data collected by the law enforcement community.
2. To improve the methodology used for compiling, analyzing, auditing, and publishing the collected crime data (U.S. Department of Justice, 2000,