It’s important to know how crime statistics are recorded in America. By understanding how crime stats are formed, it’s easier to understand the overview they give of a city.
There are two methods of recording crime in the United States:
1) The first is through law enforcement reports. This data is only accurate on crimes that were reported, recorded, and not canceled, also known as dropped charges.
2) The second method is through victim studies. Victim studies are studies that ask people if a crime has been committed against them over a specific time frame even if the crime was not reported at the time.
In the United States, there are two major crime data collection programs: the Uniformed Crime Reports (overseen by the FBI) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (Bureau of Justice Statistics). The Uniformed Crime Reports attempt to pull all law enforcement reports in the United States into one single report while the National Crime Victimization survey attempts to tackle crimes less likely to be reported or show up on the UCR.
Understanding the pros and cons of both forms of statistical reporting will help us understand how to use crime statistics and get the most out of reports.