Criminology ucr and nibrs crime data Research Paper

Criminology ucr and nibrs crime data - Research Paper Example Secondly, the National Incident-Based Reporting System or NIBRS compiles crime data from law enforcement agencies regarding personal crime occurrences reported to them. The NIBRS is collected from local, regional, state, and federal law enforcement agencies (U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2009). The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast the Uniform Crime Report, and the National Incident-Based Reporting System as the primary crime data sources used in the United States. The Uniform Crime Reporting program is an FBI data collection program started in 1929, and it is based on gathering of data on a number of crimes as reported to law enforcement authorities by the victims (U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2009). The program documents crime data for the entire nation including the states, counties, the cities, colleges, towns, and even the tribal law-enforcement regions. This widespread recording allows crime assessments between neighboring jurisdictions, especially those with comparable populations. On the other hand, the National Incident Based Reporting System is a crime reporting system that is incident-based for offenses known to the police forces. Hence, any crime incident in which the law enforcement authorities become aware of, an assortment of data are collected regarding that particular incident. The individual law enforcement agencies are then required to include aggregate number of crime occurrences by offense e very month (Akiyama & Nolan, 1999). The UCR reporting categorizes eight crimes to be reported by the agencies, and they include criminal murder, rape, theft, aggravated assault, and burglary. Others include larceny, robbery, and automobile theft. Following the UCR substantial methodological redesign in 1970, the questions under NIBRS were enhanced, so