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In the criminal justice system, a crime is an act or omission (i.e., a failure to act) that is prohibited by law, representing behaviors deemed unacceptable by the government. When someone commits a crime and is convicted, the government imposes a punishment.
EXAMPLE
In the United States, common penalties for crimes include fines, probation, or imprisonment, with the severity of the punishment generally reflecting the seriousness of the offense. We will be discussing punishment in more depth in later lessons.The law often classifies crimes as mala in se and mala prohibita. A crime is classified as mala in se if it is inherently wrong, regardless of whether there is a law against it.
EXAMPLE
Crimes such as murder, rape, and theft are considered mala in se crimes, as they are generally recognized as wrong across different countries and cultures.On the other hand, mala prohibita refers to acts deemed criminal only because they are prohibited by law. These crimes are not inherently immoral but are considered wrong because of their legal status. The definition of mala prohibita crimes can vary based on societal norms and legal codes in different regions.
EXAMPLE
Bigamy, or having multiple legal spouses, is a mala prohibita crime that may be regarded differently depending on the jurisdiction (Siegel & Worrall, 2021).Furthermore, the criminal justice system classifies crimes based on their severity and potential punishments, distinguishing between misdemeanors and felonies:
It is important to measure crime for a couple of reasons. First, measuring how much crime we have allows us to see where we stand and where we are going with respect to different social problems. It is also important to determine the nature and extent of these issues to allocate criminal justice resources accordingly.
Measuring crime also helps researchers analyze variables related to crime. The tools we will discuss in this lesson allow us to examine offender characteristics, victim characteristics, different crime categories, and many other useful factors when studying crime. Let’s now look at the primary ways we measure crime in the United States.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police established the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program in 1930 to collect official crime data. Having this data that represents the total number of crimes reported to the police or the number of arrests made by that agency allows us to look at crime during a given year and to see how crime patterns change over time. This data is crucial for police departments because it allows them to determine how to allocate resources most effectively.
The UCR was the primary way to capture official crime data from 1930 until 2021, when the National Incident-Based Reporting System, which we will discuss next, took over. Under the UCR, over 18,000 police departments reported crime data to the FBI. The UCR program collected information on the eight Part I offenses—homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Moreover, the UCR also collected just arrest data for Part II crimes, which include forgery, fraud, embezzlement, stolen property, vandalism, prostitution, drug abuse violations, gambling, driving under the influence, and other offenses (FBI, 2021).
The UCR measured offenses reported to the police, the number of offenses, the number of offenses solved by an arrest, and demographic information about people who were arrested. It also collected data with detailed information on each recorded case of homicide, including information on the victims, weapons used, victim/offender characteristics, and other circumstances related to the homicide.
One limitation of the UCR was that it did not provide information on each individual case, but rather a summary of activity for crime types. Another limitation was that it was subject to the hierarchy rule. The hierarchy rule requires only the most serious crime be counted if more than one crime was committed at a particular incident. This was one of the biggest drawbacks of the UCR. The UCR was officially replaced by the National Incident-Based Reporting System on January 1, 2021.
The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) was first created in 1989 to improve the UCR. As noted above, it is now the primary way we collect official crime data in the U.S. It was intended to capture information on all incidents, rather than just summary counts of crime. Incidents are one or more offenses committed by the same offender or group of offenders at the same time and place. In NIBRS, one incident can have up to 10 offense types, 999 victims, and 99 offenders (Libretexts, 2023).
In addition, NIBRS collects detailed information on 52 offenses in 24 categories. It collects information related to the victim, victim/offender relationship, use of weapon, type of injury, time, and location of the incident. NIBRS also eliminated the hierarchy rule. Therefore, all crimes committed at the same incident would be counted.
Despite these improvements to the UCR, NIBRS has some limitations since not all the country’s police departments have implemented NIBRS.
Because NIBRS collects details on so much information, police departments do not always report everything. This gives rise to a lot of missing data. NIBRS also has the capability for police officers to update information once it becomes known. However, since there is little incentive to update information, not all officers do.
Another drawback to NIBRS is that many large agencies do not participate. Much of our nation’s crime occurs in metropolitan areas, but because these agencies are not reporting to NIBRS, we are not always getting an accurate representation of crime nationwide. For example, the Los Angeles Police Department had not been reporting to NIBRS in the recent past, but they have become NIBRS-compliant as of 2024 and will begin providing this data (Crime Mapping and COMPSTAT, n.d.).
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is another major source of information to measure crime, and it is sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the U.S. Census Bureau. Because it is a survey, it relies on interviews rather than data reported to police. One of the main purposes of the NCVS is to get an idea of crime that occurs which is both reported and not reported to the police. Therefore, it usually indicates higher crime rates than what we see in NIBRS.
Crimes that go unreported are known as the dark figure of crime. It is estimated that half of all crimes go unreported to the police. Crimes can go unreported for a variety of reasons, and the decision to report a crime often depends on the individual circumstances and the people involved. Some common reasons why crimes go unreported include:
Regarding the methodology, the NCVS collects victimization data from a nationally representative sample of people 12 years and older from about 150,000 households. Typically, the first interview is conducted in person, but subsequent interviews are conducted using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). Households are kept in the sampling rotation for 3 years and are interviewed every 6 months (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2024).
The NCVS gathers details on each incident, including characteristics of the victim, characteristics of the offender, victim/offender relationship, time and location of the crime, consequences of the victimization, whether the crime was reported, and whether a weapon was used.
IN CONTEXT
The NCVS initially started out as the National Crime Survey in 1973 but went through redesigning in 1992, at which point it was called the NCVS. During the redesign, the survey implemented several changes that were meant to capture more victimizations. It improved screening techniques so that respondents knew what was considered a victimization. Interviewers also wanted to make sure that people recognized domestic violence as a crime. Additionally, they asked more questions about sensitive crimes, such as rape and sexual assault.
The NCVS went through another redesign in 2024. It includes a new instrument to improve the measurement of victimization and incident characteristics. It also includes new questions related to police performance and community safety.
Because the NCVS is a sample, it is subject to sampling error. Whenever we are not looking at an entire population, we look at a sample. It is impossible to determine that the sample is exactly the same as the population. That is, we cannot be 100% sure that the victimizations experienced by the households in the NCVS’s sampling frame are representative of the victimizations in the entire country.
Additionally, because we are dealing with people, there are bound to be some errors, such as difficulty remembering when something occurred. Therefore, interviewers have respondents recall only victimizations that occurred within a 6-month time frame.
Source: THIS TUTORIAL WAS AUTHORED BY SOPHIA LEARNING. PLEASE SEE OUR TERMS OF USE.
REFERENCES
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (n.d.). National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Bjs.ojp.gov. bjs.ojp.gov/data-collection/ncvs#0-0
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2022, August 2). National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Bureau of Justice Statistics. bjs.ojp.gov/national-incident-based-reporting-system-nibrs
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2021). Crime/Law enforcement stats (UCR program). Federal Bureau of Investigation. www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/more-fbi-services-and-information/ucr
LAPD Online. (n.d.). Crime Mapping and COMPSTAT. www.lapdonline.org/office-of-the-chief-of-police/office-of-special-operations/detective-bureau/crime-mapping-and-compstat/
Libretexts. (2023, August 23). 1.4: Classification of Crimes. Social Sci LibreTexts. socialsci.libretexts.org/Under_Construction/Purgatory/JPP_207_Substantive_Criminal_Law/01%3A_Introduction_to_Criminal_Law/1.04%3A_Classification_of_Crimes
Siegel, L. J., & Worrall, J. L. (2021). Introduction to Criminal Justice, Loose-Leaf Version. Cengage.
