The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program compiles official data on
crime in the United States
Crime in the United States has been recorded since its founding. Crime rates have varied over time, with a sharp rise after 1900 and reaching a broad bulging peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. After 1992, crime rates began to fall year by ye ...
, published by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
(FBI). UCR is "a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of nearly 18,000 city, university and college, county, state,
tribal
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
, and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention".
Crime statistics are compiled from UCR data and published annually by the FBI in the ''Crime in the United States'' series. The FBI does not collect the data itself. Rather,
law enforcement agencies
A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws.
Jurisdiction
LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction.
LEA ...
across the United States provide the data to the FBI, which then compiles the Reports.
The Uniform Crime Reporting program began in 1929, and since then has become an important source of crime information for law enforcement, policymakers, scholars, and the media.
History
The UCR Program was based upon work by the
International Association of Chiefs of Police
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) is a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia (United States). It is the world's largest professional association for police
The police are a Law enforcement organization, c ...
(IACP) and the
Social Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it today maintains a he ...
(SSRC) throughout the 1920s to create a uniform national set of crime statistics, reliable for analysis. In 1927, the IACP created the Committee on Uniform Crime Reporting to determine statistics for national comparisons. The committee determined seven crimes fundamental to comparing crime rates: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, burglary, aggravated assault, larceny and motor vehicle theft (the eighth, arson, was added under a congressional directive in 1979). The early program was managed by the IACP, prior to FBI involvement, done through a monthly report. The first report in January 1930 reported data from 400 cities throughout 43 states, covering more than 20 million individuals, approximately twenty percent of the total U.S. population.
On June 11, 1930, through IACP lobbying, the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
passed legislation enacting
28 U.S.C. § 534, which granted the office of the
Attorney General the ability to "acquire, collect, classify, and preserve identification, criminal identification, crime, and other records" with the ability to appoint officials to oversee this duty, including the subordinate members of the Bureau of Investigation. The Attorney General, in turn, designated the FBI to serve as the national clearinghouse for the data collected, and the FBI assumed responsibility for managing the UCR Program in September 1930. The July 1930 issue of the IACP crime report announced the FBI's takeover of the program. While the IACP discontinued oversight of the program, they continued to advise the FBI to better the UCR.
Since 1935, the FBI served as a data clearinghouse; organizing, collecting, and disseminating information voluntarily submitted by local, state, federal and tribal law enforcement agencies. The UCR remained the primary tool for collection and analysis of data for the next half century. Throughout the 1980s, a series of National UCR Conferences were with members from the IACP, Department of Justice, including the FBI, and newly formed
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The purpose was to determine necessary system revisions and then implement them. The result of these conferences was the release of a ''Blueprint for the Future of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program'' release in May 1985, detailing the necessary revisions. The report proposed splitting reported data into two separate categories, the eight serious crimes (which later became known as "Part I index crimes") and 21 less commonly reported crimes (which later became known as "Part II index crimes").
In 2003, FBI UCR data were compiled from more than 16,000 agencies, representing 93 percent of the population in 46 states and the
District of Columbia
)
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.
UCR and NIBRS Participation
. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington, D.C. Retrieved on 2008-03-30. While nationally reporting is not mandated, many states have instituted laws requiring law enforcement within those states to provide UCR data.
Divisions
The UCR Program consists of four parts:
* Traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is an incident-based reporting system used by law enforcement agencies in the United States for collecting and reporting data on crimes. Local, state and federal agencies generate NIBRS data from t ...
(NIBRS) – Offense and arrest data
* Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) Program
* Hate Crime Statistics Program – hate crimes
* Cargo Theft Reporting Program – cargo theft
Package theft, also known as porch piracy, is the theft of a package or parcel. It can occur anywhere in the distribution channel including theft of packages left at a household. More specifically, it has been defined as, "Taking possession of a ...
The FBI publishes annual data from these collections in ''Crime in the United States'', ''Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted'', and ''Hate Crime Statistics''.
Data collection
Each month, law enforcement agencies report the number of known index crimes in their jurisdiction to the FBI. This mainly includes crimes reported to the police by the general public, but may also include crimes that police officer
A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
s discover, and known through other sources. Law enforcement agencies also report the number of crime cases cleared.
UCR crime categories
For reporting purposes, criminal offenses are divided into two major groups: Part I offenses and Part II offenses.
In Part I, the UCR indexes reported incidents of index crimes which are broken into two categories: violent and property crimes. Aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, and robbery are classified as violent while arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft are classified as property crimes. These are reported via the document named Return A – Monthly Return of Offenses Known to the Police. Part 1 crimes are collectively known as Index crimes, this name is used because the crimes are considered quite serious, tend to be reported more reliably than others, and the reports are taken directly by the police and not a separate agency which aggregates the data and does not necessarily contribute to the UCR.
In Part II, the following categories are tracked: simple assault, curfew offenses and loitering, embezzlement, forgery and counterfeiting, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, drug offenses, fraud, gambling, liquor offenses, offenses against the family, prostitution, public drunkenness
Public intoxication, also known as "drunk and disorderly" and "drunk in public", is a summary offense in some countries rated to public cases or displays of drunkenness. Public intoxication laws vary widely by jurisdiction, but usually require an ...
, runaways, sex offenses, stolen property, vandalism, vagrancy, and weapons offenses.
Two property reports are also included in addition to the "Return A". The first is the Property Stolen by Classification report. This report details the number of actual crimes of each type in the "Return A" and the monetary value of property stolen in conjunction with that crime. Some offenses are reported in greater detail on this report than on the "Return A". For example, on the "Report A", burglaries
Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murder ...
are divided into three categories: Forcible Entry, Unlawful Entry – No Force, and Attempted Forcible Entry. On the Property Stolen by Classification report, burglaries are divided into six categories based on location, type (method and success of entry), and the time of the offense. Offenses are counted in residences with offense times of 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Unknown Time and Non-residences with the same three time groupings.
The second property report is the Property Stolen by Type (of Property) and Value report. The monetary value of both stolen and recovered property are totaled and classified as one of eleven property types:
*Currency
A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins.
A more general ...
, Notes
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versio ...
, Etc.
*Jewelry
Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry ( U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a w ...
and Precious Metals
Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high economic value.
Chemically, the precious metals tend to be less reactive than most elements (see noble metal). They are usually ductile and have a high lu ...
*Clothing
Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...
and Fur
Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket t ...
s
*Locally Stolen Motor Vehicles
*Office Equipment
Office supplies are consumables and equipment regularly used in offices by businesses and other organizations, by individuals engaged in written communications, recordkeeping or bookkeeping, janitorial and cleaning, and for storage of supplies o ...
*Televisions, Radios, Stereos, Etc.
* Firearms
*Household goods
Household goods are goods and products used within households. They are the tangible and movable personal property placed in the rooms of a house, such as a bed or refrigerator.
Economic role
Businesses that produce household goods are catego ...
* Consumable goods
*Livestock
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...
*Miscellaneous
The FBI began recording arson rates, as part of the UCR, in 1979. This report details arsons of the following property types:
*Single Occupancy Residential (houses, townhouses, duplexes, etc.)
*Other Residential (apartments, tenements, flats, hotels, motels, dormitories, etc.)
*Storage (barns, garages, warehouses, etc.)
*Industrial/Manufacturing
*Other Commercial (stores, restaurants, offices, etc.)
*Community/Public (churches, jails, schools, colleges, hospitals, etc.)
*All Other Structures (out buildings, monuments, buildings under construction, etc.)
*Motor Vehicles (automobiles, trucks, buses, motorcycles, etc.)
*Other Mobile Property (trailers, recreational vehicles, airplanes, boats, etc.)
*Other (crops, timber, fences, signs, etc.)
Advisory groups
The Criminal Justice Information Systems Committees of the International Association of Chiefs of Police
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) is a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia (United States). It is the world's largest professional association for police
The police are a Law enforcement organization, c ...
(IACP) and the National Sheriffs' Association
The National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) is a U.S. trade association. Its stated purpose is to raise the level of professionalism among U.S. sheriffs, their deputies and others in the fields of criminal justice and public safety. Since its found ...
(NSA) serve in an advisory capacity to the UCR Program and encourage local police departments and sheriff's departments to participate fully in the program.
In 1988, a Data Providers' Advisory Policy Board was established to provide input for UCR matters. The Board operated until 1993 when it combined with the National Crime Information Center Advisory Policy Board to form a single Advisory Policy Board (APB) to address all issues regarding the FBI's criminal justice information services. In addition, the Association of State UCR Programs (ASUCRP) focuses on UCR issues within individual state law enforcement associations and promotes interest in the UCR Program. These organizations foster widespread and responsible use of UCR statistics and assist data contributors when needed.
Limitations
The UCR itself warns that it reflects crime reports by police, not later adjudication. Because reporting quality, arrest likelihood, officers per capita, and funding vary by jurisdiction, the data should not be used to compare crime rates or frequencies between reporting agencies.
See also
* National Crime Victimization Survey
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), administered by the US Census Bureau under the Department of Commerce, is a national survey of approximately 49,000 to 150,000 households - with approximately 240,000 persons aged 12 or older - twice ...
* Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook
{{italic title
Frequently referred to as ''The Green Book'' due to its green cover, the ''Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook'' is a publication of the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The manual instructs ...
References
Further reading
* Lynch, J. P., & Addington, L. A. (2007). ''Understanding crime statistics: revisiting the divergence of the NCVS and UCR''. Cambridge studies in criminology. Cambridge University Press.
*Kaplan, Jacob. 2021.
Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program Data: A Practitioner’s Guide
'.
External links
Uniform Crime Reports, all years
(official)
Uniform Crime Report Statistics Graphed
Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook
(FBI)
* ttp://leb.fbi.gov/2014/march/officer-survival-spotlight-officer-perception-and-assault-prevention Officer Survival Spotlight - Officer Perception and Assault PreventionFBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
{{DOJ agencies
Law enforcement databases in the United States
United States Department of Justice publications
Crime statistics
Academic works about criminology
1930 establishments in the United States
Publications established in 1930