For many years now, there has been flawed statistics about murder in the United States of America with media exaggerating numbers that cannot be ascertained. Interestingly, these figures are exaggerated by a great margin sometimes by a factor of more than ten. For instance, research found that the presumed 150,000 deaths from anorexia were exaggerated by a factor of twenty (Steen 228). However, someone may ask why people tend to skew statistics towards bad statistics. Best posits that, “People who are concerned about some new social issue (e.g., child abductions) seek to justify their concern using the contemporary standard of objective fact, statistics. However, precisely because their concern is new, no one will have collected accurate, systematic data on the problem they are worried about” (Best 10). This paper looks into how numbers are created and gives insight into the number of murders committed in the United States of America in 2008. Methods used The number of murders in the United States of America in 2008 was 16,204 (United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute). The FBI applies a systematic approach in measuring social reality in establishing the number of crimes committed in every year. To measure social reality, FBI first identifies the form of murder. After most murder cases occur, law enforcement are notified and this is facilitated by intense networking between law enforcers and other investigation bodies like the National Law Enforcement Teletype System (NLETS), the Law Enforcement Online (LEO) and ViCAP Alerts. FBI also uses National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC). These bodies ensure that most of murder cases are reported and recorded to eliminate the common social reality; the big lie. The big lie principle states that, “an outrageous untruth is easier to convince people of than a less outrageous truth” (Salem Para. 4). After getting the information, FBI embarks on investigation to authenticate the form of murder. This excludes law enforcers who are not allowed to carry any investigation. After identifying the nature of murder, a task force is formed based on experience, nature of the case and resources available. This task force includes members from investigative bodies again to avoid bias and distortion of information. Communication between these groups is recommended to ensure that important information circulates amongst the task force. ViCAP database comes in handy in this process for FBI can access crucial information concerning the nature of murder. Immediately after obtaining the data, the information is entered into electronic database to avoid loss of information. Naturally, the investigating bodies and the task force have loads of information to handle and to avoid loss of information they document it timely. FBI owns Rapid Start; a case management system computerized to make data documentation easier and efficient. Moreover, FBI have murder book where they record investigative information on every reported murder. This book can be computerized; nevertheless, it contains all available notes and evidence concerning any given murder. The final and crucial stage of determining the number of murders is the analytical stage. At this point, crime analysts come in to analyze the viability of the dat