Crime Victims: An Introduction to Victimology Sixth Edition

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Crime Victims An Introduction to
VictimologySixth Edition

• By Andrew Karmen
• Chapter Three Sources of Information About Crime
  Victims

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Introduction

• The Big Picture
• Where and when do most crimes occur, use of
  weapons, are victims usually strangers, how do
  victims act, fight back, escape, etc., how many
  are injured or hospitalized, and how much money
  did they lose?

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Introduction

• How do we put together the Big Picture?
• Official statistics gathered by government
• Criminologists and victimologists gather their
  own data
• Special interest groups gather crime data

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Use and Abuse of Statistics

• Statisticsmeaningful numbers that reveal
  important information
• Official statisticscompiled and published by
  government
• Statistics
• Provide realistic assessments of a threat posed
  to individuals by criminal activity
• Reveal patterns of criminal activity
• Reflect trends of criminal activity

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Use and Abuse of Statistics

• Statistics continued
• Reveal costs and losses by criminal activity
• Project number of possible victims of a
  particular crime
• Evaluate effectiveness of recovery efforts and
  prevention strategies
• Identify statistical portraits (profiles) of a
  typical victim

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Use and Abuse of Statistics

• Interpretation of Statistics
• Can be used to influence decision makers
• Can be used to reduce fears
• Can be used to support police administration
• Can be used to show something is not working
• Interpretations of mathematical findings can be
  given a spin that is usually debatable
• Is the glass half full or half empty?

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FBIs Crime Clock

• FBI gathers data annually from local police
  departments nationally and publishes every year
  an annual report of crime statistics called the
  Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
• The data is reported in a Time Clock format,
  noting how many seconds or minutes apart a
  particular crime or criminal event occurssee
  Figure 3.1, Page 46

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FBIs Crime Clock

• Crime clock portrayals lend to sales pitches that
  play on fears that often lend to the exploitation
  to boost sales of burglar alarms, antitheft
  devices, or crime insurance
• This portrayal is so ominous it may convince
  citizens they are next if they havent already
  been victimized

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Using Rates per Year

• The Crime Clock gives impression that being
  singled out for crimecommon occurrence
• Different set of government gathered crime data
  collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics
  (BJS) is derived from a different source, the
  National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

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Using Rates per Year

• NCVS reports criminal activity based upon 1,000
  population. Example2 out every 1,000 citizens
  were robbed in 2004, or only 2 of the population
• 1 out of every 1,000 were injured during a
  mugging or hold-up in 2004or only 1 of the
  population999 were not injured

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Using Rates per Year

• BOTH SOURCES OF DATA ACCURATE AND
  TRUSTWORTHYONLY PRESENTED DIFFERENTLY

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UCR vs. NCVS

• During 70s and 80s, there appeared to be low
  correlation between the two official sources of
  data in regards to victimization rates
• The two reporting systems again gave conflicting
  signals at the end of 2001 regarding violent
  crimes and property crimes

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• Data Gathered by FBI from local agencies
• Part One Crimes Reported8 Crimes
• Violent Crime Data(4) Murder and Victim Info,
  Forcible Rape, Robbery and Aggravated Assault
• Property Crime Data(4) Burglary, Larceny/Theft,
  Motor Vehicle Theft and Arson

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• Data expressed using Time Clock Number of
  crimes occurring every minute
• UCR reflects data for cities, counties and states
• Reports include
• Number of complaints filed with police
• Proportion of cases solved
• Characteristics of offenders arrested
• No information about complainant or victim

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• Reports number of hate crimes reported to police
• Analyzes number of law enforcement officers
  feloniously assaulted and killed in the line of
  duty, weapons used, etc.
• Collects extensive data about victims of
  homicides including race, age, gender, weapon
  used, etc.

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Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• Shortcomings of UCR Report
• Underreporting a major problem
• Focus is offenders, not victims (homicide
  exception)
• Mixes attempted crimes and completed crimes
• Robbery includes all targets, does not single out
  households, banks, stores, etc.
• Use hierarchy rule, which reports only the most
  serious crime in a sequence of several criminal
  incidents

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National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

• Tracks 46 Group A OffensesGreater Breakdown in
  data
• i.e. simple assault, vandalism, blackmail, fraud,
  statutory rape, kidnapping
• Gathers data relating to commission of crime,
  victim information, value of theft,
  race/ethnicity
• Originally scheduled for year 2000 implementation

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National Crime Victim Survey(NCVS)

• Crime rates determined by public survey randomly
  selected by U. S. Census Bureau
• First survey, 1966Presidents Commission on Law
  Enforcement and the Administration of Justice

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National Crime Victim Survey(NCVS)

• Focuses on four part one crimes
• Crimes of Violence
• Forcible Rape
• Robbery
• Aggravated Assault
• Simple Assault
• Only surveys those 12 years of age or olderDoes
  NOT include crimes against those under 12 years
  of age

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National Crime Victim Survey(NCVS)

• Crimes Against Property
• Larceny
• BurglaryNo data gathered on businesses
  burglarized
• Motor Vehicle Theft
• No data gathered on murders or crimes against
  children under age 12
• Crime data reported by U.S. Region and Suburban
  vs. Rural

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Four Reasons NCVS Questioned

• Bias of Information
• Credibility of Information
• Wives reporting abuse, girls reporting date rape,
  boys reporting robberies on bad drug deals
• Crimes against children under 12 not probed
• Over reporting
• Pollsters, not detectives, to sort out
  conflicting stories or facts

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UCR vs. NCVS

• UCRNo data for victims except murder
• NCVSNo data on crimes of murder, bias/hate
  crimes, line of duty assaults on police
• No data on offenses against children under 12
• No data on business robberies or burglaries
• No data on arson or victims of arson
• UCRcomputes rates/100.000 population
• NCVScomputes rates/1,000 age 12 and older
  or/households (no number)

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Estimated Victimization Rates

• Table 3.1, Pages 55-56
• Estimated Victimization Rates from both the UCR
  and the NCVS, 2004

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Key Terms
Statistics Official Statistics Patterns
Trends Profiles Spin
Crime Clock Uniform Crime Report National Crime Victimization Survey
Correlation Index crimes Hierarchy Rule
Self report survey Memory decay Forward telescoping
Range (Confidence Interval) Victimization Rates Raw numbers Rates