criminal

The Rise and Fall of Murder Rates Since 1900 It is possible to look back over more than a century to note how the homicide rate has surged and ebbed in America during various historical periods. As the trend line in Figure 3.4 indicates, homi- cide rates appeared to rise at the outset of the […]

TAKING A LONGER VIEW: MURDERS IN THE UNITED STATES OVER THE PAST CENTURY Another aspect of the big picture involves getting a feel for historical trends. Is the level of criminal violence in the United States today far worse or much better than in the distant past? Is the United States becoming a safer place

Tapping into the UCR and the NCVS to Fill in the Details of the Big Picture The two official sources of government statistics can yield useful information that answers impor- tant questions about everyday life, such as, “How often does interpersonal violence break out?” (Note that when working with statistics and rounding off numbers such

Delving Deeper into the Big Picture: Examining Victimization Rates Statistics always must be scrutinized carefully, double-checked, and then put into perspective with some context. Victimologists and criminolo- gists look at both raw numbers and rates. Raw numbers reveal the actual numbers of victims. For example, the body count or the death toll is a raw

A Second Look at the Big Picture: Watching the FBIs Crime Clock Consider another set of statistics intended to sum- marize the big picture that are issued yearly by the FBI in its authoritative UCR. This set is called the Crime Clock, and it dramatizes the fact that as time passes—each and every second, minute,

A First Glance at the Big Picture: Estimates of the Number of New Crime Victims Each Year To start to bring the big picture in focus, a first step would be to look up how many Americans reveal that they were victims of street crimes each year. The absolute numbers are staggering: Police forces across

Comparing the UCR and the NCVS For victimologists, the greater variety of statistics published in the NCVS offer many more possibili- ties for analysis and interpretation than the much more limited data in the UCR. But both official sources have their advantages, and the two can be considered to complement each other. The UCR, not

Facts and Figures in the Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) Victimologists and criminologists have reservations about the accuracy of the official records kept by police departments that form the basis of the FBI’s UCR as well as its NIBRS. Tallies maintained by local law enforcement agencies surely are incom- plete due

THE TWO OFFICIAL SOURCES OF DATA As early as the 1800s, public officials began keeping records about lawbreaking to gauge the “moral health” of society. Then, as now, high rates of inter- personal violence and theft were taken as signs of social pathology—indications that something was V I C T IM I Z AT ION

Making Sense of Statistics Statistics are meaningful numbers that reveal impor- tant information. Statistics are of crucial importance to social scientists, policy analysts, and decision makers because they replace vague adjectives such as “many,” “most,” and “few” with precise numbers. Both victimologists and criminologists gather their own data to make their own calculations, or they