Question:Compare and contrast UCR and NCVS with respect to the type of
crime data they collect...
Question
Compare and contrast UCR and NCVS with respect to the type of
crime data they collect...
Compare and contrast UCR and NCVS with respect to the type of
crime data they collect and how they collect it. Identify the
strengths and weaknesses of each.
Uniform crime reports or UCR are official data on crime in the
United States,published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI). The National Crime Victimization Survey or NCVS is
administered by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, is a national
survey of approximately 49,000-77,400 households twice a year in
the United States, on the frequency of crime victimization as well
as characteristics and consequences of victimization. While
everything has both positive and negativei mpact lets talk about
the positive elements of NCVS. Positive elements of NCVS include:
measure both reported and unreported crime, Independent changes
inreporting, Provides more victim charcateristics than UCR.
Negatively, NCVS has telescoping incident dates, faulty memory,
little information on offenders, noinformation on CJS response if
reported, and only includes residents of the US.
The Uniform Crime Report collects crime data from crimes that
are reported to police agencies and are submitted. Data is
collected from all of the law enforcement agencies across the
country. These local law enforcement agencies send their data to
state agencies and then the state agencies forward the findings to
the federal sector.
The strength of the UCR is that it is very easy to see the
crime trends from the statistics that are actually reported.
However, for every incident that is not reported a flaw of this
report occurs.
Another weakness is that using the UCR the news media or anyone
searching for evidence of crime rates may base their opinions on
this data. The data does not go into any detail about specific
events that link it to a city. The UCR is the most valid and
reliable data source on crime because it is brought together by
various law enforcement officers.
NCVS survey is used to determine what portion of crime is
actually unreported to the police. A strength is that it is
personalized to each victim. It relies on personal accounts that
have explicit details. Both the UCR and NCVS are useful in
determining increases and decreases in crime rates throughout the
year. As stated earlier, I believe that the Uniform Crime Report
provides a more valid and reliable representation of
crime.