Chapter 2

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Patterns of Crime

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History of Crime Statistics

published first official crime statistics © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc.

France (1825) & England (1828)

André Michel Guerry calculated per capita crime rates throughout various French provinces

History of Crime Statistics

Early 1800sEarly 1800s

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Adolphe Quételet assessed the degree to which crime rates vary with climate, sex, and age

History of Crime Statistics

18351835

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Crime Statistics Today

United StatesUnited States

• Bureau of Justice Statistics

• Federal Bureau of Investigation

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Federal Bureau of InvestigationFederal Bureau of Investigation

• UCR

• NIBRS

Crime Statistics Today

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Uniform Crime Reports

• Begun in 1929

• 1930 – FBI authorized to serve as a national clearinghouse on crime statistics

• Part I and Part II offenses© 2004 Pearson Education, Inc.

Part I offense categoriesPart I offense categories

•Violent personal crimes

•Property crimes

Uniform Crime Reports

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UCR – Violent Crimes

• Murder

• Forcible rape

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• Aggravated

assault

UCR – Violent Crimes

• Robbery

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UCR – Property Crimes

• Burglary

• Motor vehicle theft

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UCR – Property Crimes

• Larceny

• Arson*

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* May be a violent crime if it causes a death

ProblemsProblems

• A reporting program

• Unreported and Underreported crimes

• True rates of crime are Underestimated

Uniform Crime Reports

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NIBRS

• Incident driven

• Gathers detailed information from a single incident

Report

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Group A – 46 specific crimes

Group B – 11 crimes (arrest only)

NIBRS

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• 1997 – Hate crime data reports added

Hate crimesHate crimes

• Also called bias crimes

Uniform Crime Reports

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Bureau of Justice StatisticsBureau of Justice Statistics

National

Crime

Victimization

Survey

Crime Statistics Today

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National Crime Victimization Survey

• Data collection began in 1972

• Information elicited through interviews of randomly selected U.S. households

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Patterns of Change

Since initiation of crime data collection (about 1930) three major shifts in crime rates have occurred

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• 1940s – Crime rates decreased as the crime-prone age group left to fight World War II.

• 1960s – Crime rates increasedas “baby boomers” entered the crime-prone age group.

Patterns of Change

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Patterns of Change

1960s-1980s – Crime rates increased due to “normless” quality of American society.

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• 1990s – Crime rates decreased as baby boomer generation aged-out of the crime-prone age group.

Patterns of Change

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Unreported Crime

Crimes that are not discovered (sometimes known as “the dark figure of crime”)

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Unreported Crime

Data are gathered on this aspect of crime by self-report studies

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Social Dimensions of Crime

• Age and Crime

• Gender and Crime

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Social Dimensions of Crime

• Ethnicity and Crime

• Social Class and Crime

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Costs of Crime

Victimizations generate $105 billion annually in property and productivity losses…

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Costs of Crime

…and outlays for medical expenses

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Costs of Crime In dollar terms, pain, long- term emotional trauma, disability, and risk of death increase annual costs to

$450 billion © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc.