Exploring Why a Large Number of Crimes Aren't Reported
For a large number of crimes that are committed, the biggest
percentage of them is not reported to the police or authorities. This
could be due to several reasons.
Fear
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Victims might be afraid of the offenders and the consequence if they
report the crime/s. An example is if a woman was being beaten up by
her husband. She might not report this to the police, as she will be
too scared of what he might do to her afterwards.
In the case of a burglary, the person who reports it might worry that
a repeat of the incident will occur. Similarly, in the case of
blackmail, the victim might fear the consequence of reporting to the
police to be the revelation of whatever they were being blackmailed
for. Such cases may force people to keep quiet instead, due to fear.
Shame/Embarrassment
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As a result of many crimes, victims might find themselves to be
ashamed of themselves or embarrassed. This could include crimes of
sexual abuse or rape. The victim might be embarrassed to go and talk
to someone about it or they might think that they deserved it. This
could lead them to saying quiet and suffering in silence. Also they
may think that the police won't take them seriously or if the case
goes to court, they might want to avoid humiliation.
It might also be a private matter and people might not want to involve
the police, such as sexual abuse within the family. In incidents such
as this, the victim and the family won't want to publicise the matter
so that everyone is aware of it.
Waste of Time.
In crimes such as vandalism, people might not necessarily know who did
it. This is another factor of what might stop people from reporting
crimes to the police, thinking that there is not much the police can
do about it. Those who consider reporting it might think it will only
be a waste of their own time as well as the police's
In contemporary society, there are various methodologies for collecting data (Linden 2012). That being said, there are pros and cons to each that are based on reliability and validity; where reliability is consistency of the statistics, and validity is a measure of how accurate the results are in accordance with the research topic. This ties in with how this paper will explore the Uniform Crime Report system (UCR); a measure of crime that is used the most. UCR statistics reflect the crimes that are reported to the police throughout the country. victimization and self-report surveys, which are statistics that reinforce the findings revealed by the UCR, will also be explored. Lastly, the issue of media coverage of crime news will be examined.
Uniform Crime Report data has many pros, but also many cons that come with it. There are many ways of which the Uniform Crime Report can be superior to, but also inferior to victimization and self-report data studies. According to Balkan (2015), the Uniform Crime Report shows crimes reported to police departments across the nation and is a report produced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There are two offense categories in the report: part one and part two offenses. Part one offenses would be your more serious crimes such as homicides, rape, aggravated assaults, and so on. Part two offenses would be more of the property crimes such as fraud, simple assaults, and drug abuse. The Uniform Crime Report does an excellent job presenting the numbers in terms of the part one offenses, however, there are some cons that come with the Uniform Crime
The basic rights of citizens in cities are challenged in order for officials to protect and maintain safety of the city. Law enforcement reform is an ongoing, popular, controversial topic in modern day politics and communities. Societal changes result from outcomes of solving and preventing crimes. Malcolm Gladwell introduces us to the Broken Windows Theory in the story “The Power of Context” as a resolution to prevent major crimes from being committed in urban cities. The Broken Windows Theory can be corroborated to different situations and scenarios. In the Myth of the Ant Queen, Beth Loffreda highlights how the epidemic of Matt Shepard’s murder began with the details of the crime, rather than the murder itself. This caused the details to
In the article Victims and Offenders in Two Crime Statistics Programs: A Comparison of the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), (herein after NCVS and NIBRS will be called “systems” when referencing the statistics of the nature of the crimes), the comparison of the two reporting systems for crimes are similar. These two reporting systems are a visual representation of the crimes that are reported. They do not account for crimes that are not reporting or crimes that are reported after the date. They report crime only when there is an official report, such as one by the officer that comes to the scene of the crime to take statements from the individuals. NCVS and NIBRS are only report burglary, larceny, aggravated assault, and vehicle theft. They do not report on more serious crimes such as rape or murder.
We hear a lot about the crime rates going up and down from the media and they tend to expand on specific types of criminal behavior that might be of interest to the public. When politicians are running for office we are told that the crime rates are down due to the tough crime policies that they have been implemented. Citizens seek crime rates for assistance in determining if the area they reside in is safe. Some people wish to get a general idea of the crime rates for a specific neighborhood where they are thinking of purchasing a house. But what is never explained is where do the crime statistics come from and were there any factors that could have had an effect on their reliability. Crime statistics, which are created from what is reported to the police, are often unreliable. There are several influential factors that can make crime statistics both increase and decrease at any time. Most police departments, but not all, use Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) to submit their statistics to the state. Attempting to compare two police agency's crime statistics is almost impossible because not all police agencies use the UCR program for classifying crimes. UCR is a national data reporting policy that is maintained by the state and regulated by the FBI. This policy requires police agencies to report their monthly statistics by following a hierarchy scale for classifying the criminal offenses. A hierarchy scale is a list of crimes in a specific order of importance used to pick out the highest crime when there are multiple crimes committed in one incident. An example: a citizen contacts the police and makes a report of a burglary, a rape and a larceny all occurring in one incident. A...
This would be true by way of the fact that people are not reporting these crimes
One of the biggest issues in America today is crime. It is a large problem that continues to erode our country economically as well as morally. Because of the vastness of the problem, many have speculated what the cause for crime may be in hopes that a solution will be found. Many believe that a bad family life, location of residence, and poverty hold a few of the answers to why an individual becomes involved in criminal activity.
Crime occurs everywhere around the world, it is something that is inevitable and sadly cannot be stopped from occurring in our everyday life. There are various tools that give us statistics on crime that have occurred, one of those various tools is the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The NCVS is an essential source of information on victims being victimized by criminals. Most of the time many of these crimes that occurred do get reported and some don't. The NCVS not only obtains information on any type of assault, but it also obtains crimes that have occurred in someone's household (arson, burglary..) NCVS is a self-report survey
Crime, bias and statistics are centered around the explanation of African-Americans association with criminality. Charles M. Blow, The New York Times visual Op-Ed columnist, publishes a column entitled “Crime, Bias and Statistics.” A column that speaks of the statistical difference between crimes said to be and actually committed by the black race. As time goes on, the bigger the assumptions of the black race being the culprit among blacks and whites. The bigger the increase of similar bias beliefs among all races. Despite the fact that all races are responsible for their share in the crime atmosphere, its become a habit, almost second nature , to assume black alliances with wrongdoing and corruption. African-Americans are unjustifiably linked to violence and crimes although lack of proof, all people are biased and have slight bigotry that needs to be controlled to form a more stable society.
A Comparison of Crime Rates in Different Areas I have gathered a great deal of information, conducted surveys and questionnaires, completed statistical tests and created illustrated maps to help me establish whether crime is higher in an inner city area like Spinney Hill when compared to a suburban area like Knighton. At the very start of this project I created an aim. This aim provided a starting point to this project and thus a goal to achieve. In my opinion I believe that I have achieved this aim as I have collected a substantial amount of evidence to aid me in approving or disproving my main hypothesis.
According to Schmalleger (2016), the NCVS and the UCR are programs geared towards collecting criminal data from different departments around the U.S. The National Crime Victimization Survey (VCVS) is the process of gathering criminal data from the victims themselves. This survey has a higher rate of criminal incident reporting although many of these crimes have not been reported to the police. Oftentimes, the crimes collected in these surveys are not reported because they are private family matters or were solved without the help of the police. The one big drawback from using the NCVS is the potential of people fabricating criminal behaviors, or over exaggerating the events that occurred. This then gives false reporting and inaccurate findings
Crimes that are not being accounted for are the result of victims not having trust in the system to come forward or
National Research Council. (2003). Read "Measurement Problems in Criminal Justice Research: Workshop Summary" at NAP.edu. Retrieved September 11, 2017, from https://www.nap.edu/read/10581/chapter/3#18
The United States is a variety of different cultures, religion and race, therefor making the crime that occurs in the U.S just as different as the people who live here. In order to understand the extent of crime in the U.S. you have to take into consideration many variables, which can have significant impact on crime. “Geographic and demographic factors specific to each jurisdiction must be considered and applied if one is going to make an accurate and complete assessment of crime in that jurisdiction, (U.S DOJ, 2009).”
Learning About Crime From Official Statistics In order to enlighten the general public and policy makers about the extent of crime, the crime dilemma itself must first be measured. Therefore it can be seen, that the research carried out towards crime is a fundamental subject in itself. There are a diversity of methods used in order to study the extent of crime, such methods include; statistics, surveys, questionnaires, biographies, interviews etc… The research methods used can be both quantitative and qualitative. There are two primary sources of data used in order to assist the general public in learning about the extent of crime; these are generally termed ‘official’ and ‘unofficial statistics’.