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Measuring Crime

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Measuring Crime
Measuring Crime
CJA/204
October 9, 2013
Richard Pacheco

Measuring Crime
There are two different instruments used in reporting crime. There are also major crimes reporting program used in the United States. These major crime reporting programs do have a purpose and does give statistical information on crime in the United States. There are a difference between crime rates, arrest rates, clearance rates, and recidivism rates. The information reported about crime rates can be misleading and give inaccurate information about the crime rate in the United States. Crime and recidivism statistics can both give some important about crime in the United States.
Instruments used to measure crime
There are different ways that crime is reported in the United States. The media reports crime and influence society perception of crime (Schmalleger, 2011). This sometimes causes public opinion on crime unrealistic (Schmalleger, 2011). Statistic data provides a better view on the amount of crime occurring than what is reported by the news media. The statistic reports are not as accurate as society would want, but it still gives a better understanding of the amount of crimes, types of crimes and also the frequency of those crimes than the news media. People who are the victims of a crime are the ones who report the crime and allow the crimes to be placed in a crime database (Schmalleger, 2011).
Major crime reporting programs
The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) are the two major reporting of crime programs used in reporting crime in the United States (Schmalleger, 2011). Crime is computed by adding the major crimes reported to the police. The police report these crimes to the F.B.I who publishes the findings in the UCR. The UCR provides an annual report of incidents and rate of the reported crime that occurs throughout the United States (Schmalleger, 2011). The UCR program created a crime index to create a
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