Dissecting Crime Statistics
| Published date | 01 December 2010 |
| DOI | 10.3818/JRP.12.2.2010.77 |
| Date | 01 December 2010 |
| Author | Howard N. Snyder |
| Subject Matter | Policy Essay and Two Commentaries |
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DissectingCrimeStatistics
Howard N. Snyder
Bureau of Justice Statistics
* Abstract
In recent years practitioners, policy makers, and researchers have questioned the utility of
the standard set of crime measures derived from the data collected by the FBI’s Uniform
Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. They have called for viable reporting options that do
not burden law enforcement and that utilize available information. Using these criteria, this
article presents recommendations for an enhanced set of community-level crime measures.
These measures are designed to service the information needs of law enforcement as well
as the information needs of the many audiences that depend on (or could benefit from) law
enforcement statistics.
This paper was originally presented at the Bureau of Justice Statistics/Justice Research and
Statistics Association 2009 National Conference held in St. Louis, Missouri, on October
22, 2009. The findings, opinions or points of view contained in this article do not necessarily
represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
JUSTICE RESEARCH AND POLICY, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2010
© 2010 Justice Research and Statistics Association
Po l i c y Es s a y a n d Tw o co m m E n T a r i E s
P
In the 1920s, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) recognized
the need for, and promoted the reporting of, crime statistics at the local and na-
tional levels. IACP encouraged police administrators to report statistics that doc-
umented the problems they faced and the achievements they made (Committee
on Uniform Crime Records, 1929). IACP further emphasized that these statistics
should be based on information routinely maintained by law enforcement agencies
so that reporting would not unduly burden police authorities. IACP also realized
the desirability for agencies to report these data uniformly.
Based on these principles, IACP developed a recommended set of table shells
with common definitions and encouraged their use. The table shells included:
Counts of selected crimes known to the law enforcement agency. IACP’s •
Committee on Uniform Crime Records recommended seven offense cat-
egories (i.e., murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, ag-
gravated assault, burglary-breaking and entering, larceny-theft, and auto
theft) in their then recently released manual, Uniform Crime Reporting.
IACP believed that these offense categories “generally became known to
the police” and would “therefore serve as the best index of the amount
of crime committed.”
Distribution of offenses by month and by hour of day. IACP viewed this •
information as having a “useful bearing upon patrol and prevention methods”
and value in “arranging vacation periods for the force and in distributing
patrols throughout the 24 hours of the day,” as well as being of “general
interest to the public at large.”
Counts of arrests by offense and by arrestee characteristics. IACP recom-•
mended reporting counts of arrests in more than 20 offense categories. Ad-
ditionally, it recommended the reporting of arrestee characteristics using
detailed age groups, sex, and nativity/color categories. The recommended
nativity/color categories were: “Native Born White of Native Parentage,
Native Born White of Foreign Parentage, Foreign Born White, Negro, and
All Other.”
Counts of the miscellaneous services rendered by the department. These •
services included lodgers cared for, doors found open, persons reported as
missing, fires discovered, lamp outages reported, lunacy cases handled, suicide
cases investigated, and wagon service provided for the sick and injured.
Along with these tables of counts, IACP recommended that law enforcement
agencies report some statistics: 1) percent of crimes cleared by arrest, 2) percent of
persons charged found guilty, and 3) crime rates defined as the number of offenses
known to police per 100,000 inhabitants. IACP pointed out that “the rapid growth
of some of our cities has carried the total of certain crimes to unprecedented levels,
although the crime rate may have remained almost stationary or may have actually
declined.” The ability of crime rates to control for population changes over time
and to compare relative levels of crime between different size jurisdictions was
recognized early in the development of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
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