In this time of age, with racial tensions being at an all-time high, the scrutiny on police officers, and the impact social media has, the measurements on violent crime are vital to the United States of America. Thus, the following paper will be over two quantitative measures on violent crime. One being the number of people arrested for violent crimes in the United States, and the other is the race of the victims of violent crime. In order to be able to measure violent crime, it must first be defined. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reports program (UCR), “violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.” By measuring violent
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Consequently, that is the reason why the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) was created. The NCVS is the “primary source for information on the characteristics of criminal victimization and on the number and types of crime not reported to law enforcement” (James, 26). The survey will ask the respondents whether they have been the victim to violent or property crimes. In addition to collecting information on the location, date and time of the incident. One of the main components of the NVCS is to determine what type of crime was committed. Likewise, with the UCR, if the “details of the incident do not meet the criteria necessary to define a victimization as a particular crime, the victimization will not be counted as a crime” (James, …show more content…
With less people being arrested for crime, the less victims there will be. However, both measurements cannot fully be considered as the ideal way to measure violent crime. Firstly, because the UCR itself is not a good measurement. While the reports do provide factual substantial information, it is not concrete because it does not include the crimes that are not reported, thus making it impossible to have an accurate number of violent crimes being committed in the United States. Besides, “federal law does not require local law enforcement agencies to submit offense data to the UCR program” (James, 24). This makes the UCR not as reliable because not all agencies will report any data, forcing the program to estimate the amount arrests made throughout the
Consequently, that is the reason why the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) was created. The NCVS is the “primary source for information on the characteristics of criminal victimization and on the number and types of crime not reported to law enforcement” (James, 26). The survey will ask the respondents whether they have been the victim to violent or property crimes. In addition to collecting information on the location, date and time of the incident. One of the main components of the NVCS is to determine what type of crime was committed. Likewise, with the UCR, if the “details of the incident do not meet the criteria necessary to define a victimization as a particular crime, the victimization will not be counted as a crime” (James, …show more content…
With less people being arrested for crime, the less victims there will be. However, both measurements cannot fully be considered as the ideal way to measure violent crime. Firstly, because the UCR itself is not a good measurement. While the reports do provide factual substantial information, it is not concrete because it does not include the crimes that are not reported, thus making it impossible to have an accurate number of violent crimes being committed in the United States. Besides, “federal law does not require local law enforcement agencies to submit offense data to the UCR program” (James, 24). This makes the UCR not as reliable because not all agencies will report any data, forcing the program to estimate the amount arrests made throughout the