Uniform Crime Report (UCR) Performance Task

Title of Assignment

Name

Professor’s Name

Course Title

Date

Uniform Crime Report

Contents

Introduction................................................................................................................

Definition……..........................................................................................................

Data Gathering Strategy…………………………………………………………….

Why This Strategy………………………………………………………………….

The Crime Trends…………………………………………………………………..

Conclusion.................................................................................................................

Introduction

Crime is a violation of a law or laws set by the government, an institution or a specific community or a group of people. Laws are rules and regulations which society has recognized as the set guidelines in which every individual must adhere to the letter and which if broken has well-defined retributions. Most countries all over the world have well-defined laws, their level of seriousness and the specific punishments in case they are broken. In the informal social settings to have their own laws and regulations that are highly regarded and severe punishment is set in place for the lawbreakers. Crime has been in existence since the beginning of times and has gradually increased as the population increase and living standards keep on changing. Most crimes are the same as in the earlier year, but with the exception of modes of punishment and the emergence of a few new crimes that were not there before. An example is the cyber crimes that were not there before the invention of technology. There are various reasons why people engage in crime. Crime can be a result of low self-esteem, one's ability to control temptations, poverty, political and economic situations. There are formal and informal types of punishment for lawbreakers. These include imprisonment, community service, incapacitation or even death. The informal forms of punishment for crime include shaming, disapproving, critisim, and sarcasm. The form of punishment varies from the magnitude of the crime, a serious crime attracts a higher penalty while a less serious crime is punished with less severe methods, Age also determines the severity of punishment. There are punishments for minors and those for adults and they are all different. The location of the crime also is a major determinant for the mode of punishment, for instance, some countries would sentence a perpetrator a death sentence and another country a probation penalty for the same crime. Some communities, for instance, have no set rules that distinguish serious offenses from less serious offenses and hence punishment is the same for both. In some countries, however, there are clear guidelines differentiating serious offenses from the least offenses and their specific punishments.

The Uniform Crime Report is a nationwide crime statistical program which is dated back on July 26, 1908. It was formed by the International Association of Chiefs of police. The program collects and classifies all the crimes happenings in the United States, colleges, tribes, and all law enforcement agencies in order of similarity and type of crimes. This project is done annually and is officially published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The law enforcement agencies in the entire United States are the source of the data of the various crimes recorded in the Uniform Crime Report. This data collection process is nationwide and is voluntary. Uniform Crime Report collects data on crimes such as burglary, forcible rape, murder, robbery, larceny-theft, arson, manslaughter, aggravated assault, and motor vehicle theft. The main objective of this crime data collection is to provide law enforcement with statistical guidelines for law enforcement, management, and operations. With the help of UCR data analyses, law enforcement agencies are able to identify criminal activities in a certain area, plan, and budget for crimes curbing operations and help solve the various crimes at various levels. On the other hand institutions such as psychological and sociological departments use this data for research on the level of crime in society and predict human behavior and also come up with ways to control crimes.

The data gathering strategy that I chose for my report is the document review. Document review strategy involves the collection of raw data which is done through either observation or interviews, organization of the data, and interpretation of the collected data. In this case document review is the most appropriate because the report is dealing with data that has already been collected and organized in terms of types of crimes, the number of crimes for each category and the year the crimes were committed. Towns Happy, Frown, Cool and Smooth crime rate data for the last five years between 2010 and 2015 has already been compiled. Therefore, it is easier to use the already collected data and use it for my analysis and interpretation of crime trends in the four towns

From the crime data provided for towns Cool, Frown, Smooth and Happy in a period between 2010 and 2015, one can draw conclusions that Happy has the highest crime rate seconded by Smooth town. Cool and frown have the same crime rate which makes them third. Latency theft is the highest crime recorded across the four towns. Murder and nonviolent manslaughter are the lowest forms of crime committed across the four towns. In the period of 5 years, crime overall has increased. The increase of crime in these four towns could be a result of poor governance, decrease in security, increased vices in the society or increased poverty which drives individuals to crime as an alternative to making ends meet.

In conclusion, the UCR strategy of keeping records of crimes across the states is vital to understanding criminal activities, its trends and identifying the most vulnerable areas to crimes. With the right interpretation, these records can be relevant for the planning and implementation of law enforcement policies. These policies can be used to minimize crimes, help for preparations in case of catastrophic crimes such as mass shootings and bombings. Also with the help of well-interpreted crime data the law enforcement is able to estimate the number of criminals and get to set enough resources for their rehabilitation. For instance, build enough prisons with adequate rehabilitation pieces of equipment. The data can also be used by the social humanities department to predict and analyze human behavior. For instance, it provides data for psychologists to have a basis for their research on human behavior and as a result, get to understand the psychological root causes of criminal behavior and it is in discovering the root cause of a problem, a solution is deduced. However, UCR just like any other data analysis system has its own challenges. For instance, in the case where it is not possible to quantify crime for sure. Some crimes go undiscovered, some even after being reported are not recorded and some crimes are not well defined and therefore the victims are not even aware of being a victim. This poses a problem of insufficient data which therefore brings in the challenge of reliable conclusions.

Nevertheless, crime is a social vice, which, if not controlled can lead to social disharmony, disruption of peace, psychological problems due to fear that comes with the realization of present crimes, low quality of life or even death. Therefore the UCR report is very vital as it provides information that, when properly interpreted can be used to minimize and controlling crimes in our country.