Uniform Crime Report

Uniform Crime Report: Assignment 1

CRJ 105: Crime and Criminal Behavior

Strayer University

Describe the Uniform Crime Report

The Uniform Crime Report was devised by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in 1929. The Uniform Crime Report was created to meet the need for a reliable, organized crime statistic to help show the nation what the real crime rate was. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was tasked with collecting, publishing, and archiving the statistics for the Uniform Crime Report in 1930. The Uniform Crime Report has many uses for keeping the public informed about the crime rate in their area and helping criminal justice students learn more about criminal justice and its processes. The Uniform Crime Report has four annual publications which consist of Hate Crime Statistics, Crime in the United States, Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, and National Incident-Based Reporting System all of which keep the public informed on crime.

The Uniform Crime Report is divided into two parts with a crime index that organizes crimes from the worst offense to the least offense. Part I of the Uniform Crime Report consists of the crimes that are thought to be the worst of them all, while Part II consists of the crimes that are considered to be the lesser of the offenses. The crimes in Part I consist of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson; which was added to part I only recently. The crimes in Part II consist of simple assault, forgery and counterfeiting, fraud, embezzlement, receiving stolen property, vandalism, illegal carrying of weapons, prostitution and related offenses, sex offenses, drug law violations, liquor law violations, public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, vagrancy, curfew violations and loitering, runaways, and all other violations of state and local laws. Even though all these laws are prosecuted, not all of them make it onto the Uniform Crime Report. The crimes that are reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the Uniform Crime Report are those that are included in Part I only. If a criminal has committed more than one of the offenses listed in Part I of the Uniform Crime Report, then his crimes are listed under the worst offense that he committed at the time. Taking all the information about the Uniform Crime Report into consideration, we will look at the past five years in the towns of Happy Town, Smooth Town, Cool Town, and Frown Town and learn why each town went down the path that they went down.

Describe a data-gathering strategy and explains why I used this strategy

After reviewing the collected data from each of the four towns, we determined that descriptive research was the data-gathering strategy that was used in the collection process. The descriptive research method tries to determine and report the social situations under law enforcement investigation. Descriptive research allows for the manners and behavior of criminal populations to be described accurately. Descriptive research allows us to see why crime rates in two towns went down while crime rates in two other towns went up. It makes us question what these towns were doing to increase or decrease their crime rates. This method of data-gathering makes these changes available to everyone and shows what each town was doing differently and why it affected the crime rates in those towns.

Discuss the crime trends comparing Happy Town, Frown Town, Smooth Town, and Cool Town over the past five years.

For the past five years, Happy Town has had a significant increase in crime while the population decreased. The crime rate in Happy Town increased from a total of 299 reported crimes in 2010 to a total of 214 reported crimes. Most of these crimes were thefts, one in which the police chief’s son was involved along with two others. The three suspects from the most recent theft were also charged with drug possession with the intent to distribute, felony possession of a firearm, and larceny-theft. Unfortunately, all three of these crimes could not be counted on the Uniform Crime Report, so the only one recorded was the larceny-theft charge. The Uniform Crime Report speaks for itself, showing the drastic change in larceny-theft which had a total of 162 in 2010, and it increased every year to a total of 214 in 2015. Out of the seven crimes that are recorded in the Uniform Crime Report, all seven have had a significant increase since 2010.

Frown Town has had a crime rate that has fluctuated with the addition of every new resident in the area. Crime in Frown Town was at its lowest in 2010, and it had a steady increase in both crime and population until 2014. In 2015, with even more residents moving to the area the crime rate decreased though it did not fall quite as low as it was in 2010. The police in Frown Town have reported that the annual crime rate has dropped by seventeen percent. They accredit the decrease in crime to criminal investigations, arrests, and the community’s involvement. The most significant praise is given to the citizens who live in Frown Town. The police praise them for being vigilant and helping them catch criminals that have committed crimes. The citizens of Frown Town have learned to keep their eyes and ears open which has contributed to their success. With the increasing population in Frown Town, it was normal to see the increase in the crime rate.

Smooth Town is another town that saw its crime rate fluctuate with the increasing population. Their crime rate was at its lowest in 2010 which is also when Smooth Town was at its lowest population. As the population increased, so did the crime rate which fell in 2013 but rose again in 2014. Even though the total number of crimes increased, the crime rate decreased because of the increase in population. In truth, Smooth Town is at its lowest crime rate, and it stems mostly from the decrease in property-related crimes. The low crime rate in Smooth Town prompted a newspaper article entitled “Smooth Town a Safe Town” which was an article that praised the decrease in the crime rate. It is reported that the crime rate in Smooth Town is ninety-seven percent lower than all its Georgia peers. Smooth Town is also a four-minute drive from Fort Cool Breeze and a ten-minute drive from the Lollipop Amusement Park. The low crime rate is also said to be contributed to by the fact that the residence in Smooth Town is paid fifteen percent more than the state median.

Cool Town is another town that saw a population increase and a gradual increase in crime from 2010 to 2014. The crime rate dropped to its lowest in 2015 which is also when the population of Cool Town rose to its highest. The most significant decrease in crime is larceny-theft which dropped from 140 in 2010 to 126 in 2015. The low crime rate is credited to the community’s involvement and the work of the police force. The crime rate has fallen by four-percent, which might sound like a tiny number, but it contributes to the eighteen percent drop in the past two years. Chief of Police, Chief Luger, said that the low crime rate was because of “everyone staying cool” in Cool Town. Another factor in the crime rate decrease is the fact that the residents of Cool Town is paid two-point-seven percent more than the state median. They also state that the low crime rate is because sixty-eight percent of the residence in Cool Town have a bachelor’s degree.

When we look at the Uniform Crime Report and the data that was gathered for each of these towns, we can see the increase and decrease of the seven different crimes for the past five years. It is common knowledge that when the population of a city or town increases, the crime rate can also increase, and it can also decrease when the population decreases. Cool Town, Smooth Town, and Frown Town all saw an increase in their population, and though the number of crimes committed rose slightly every year or so, their crime rates decreased significantly. Happy Town, on the other hand, saw a decrease in population and a drastic rise in crime.

The citizens of Happy Town would rather move away from Happy Town, instead of trying to help the police fight crime or help them make arrests. It takes a community acting together to fight crime in any town and when there is no union, the crime rate skyrockets. Smooth Town has the right mix of community involvement, and the chief of police even praises the community for being so involved with helping the police. Cool Town has some community involvement, but they need to become more vigilant to fight their crime rate. Frown Town also needs to get the community involved more so they can fight crime more adequately.

Conclusion

In conclusion, using the descriptive research method and the Uniform Crime Report, we can compare the crime rates of Happy Town, Frown Town, Smooth Town, and Cool Town. Out of the four towns, Frown Town, Smooth Town, and Cool Town had a steady increase in their population which contributed to the rise in the number of crimes committed, but ultimately all three towns had a decrease in their crime rate. Happy Town was the only one out of the four that had a steady decrease in population which also contributed to its drastic increase in their crime rate. Happy Town also had a mixture of crime, some of which were not recorded in the Uniform Crime Report because they were committed by the same person and the worst of that person’s crimes was recorded. The Uniform Crime Report and all those that voluntarily send information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation make it possible for us to monitor the crime rate of our cities and even our states. As long as the Uniform Crime Report is published, we can stay informed about the crime where we live, and we can learn how to help combat crime by staying vigilant and helping our police as much as we can.