Bridging Gaps in Police Crime Data

Book Id: WPLBN0000039412
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.5 MB
Reproduction Date: 2008

Title:	Bridging Gaps in Police Crime Data
Author:
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Language:	English
Subject:	Government publications, Legislation., Government Printing Office (U.S.)
Collections:	Government Library Collection
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Publisher:	Government Printing Office


Citation APA MLA Chicago Bridging Gaps in Police Crime Data. (n.d.). Bridging Gaps in Police Crime Data. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.cc/

Excerpt
Excerpt: I began work on this project because, although I had been using the UCR for many years, I had never understood all of its intricacies & and felt somewhat embarrassed to ask simple questions about why certain procedures were used, because obviously everyone else knew. It turned out, however, that most people seemed to be as much in the dark as I was, perhaps about different aspects of the UCR, and during this project we began to share our knowledge, each of us having an understanding of different aspects of the data collection and analysis process. This report is, then, more a collaboration than a single-authored effort, a kind of open source presentation of our collective knowledge. [Although the knowledge is collective, the interpretation of that knowledge is my own.]...

Table of Contents
I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Why We Need to Look at the UCR . . . . . . 2 The Information-Gathering Process 3 Report Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 II. UCR History and Coverage . . . . . . . . . . 4 State-Level Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Comparing Crime Data . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Coverage Gaps and Imputation . . . . 5 The UCR and Funding Decisions . . 7 The UCR and Electronic Access . . . 9 Use of Sub-National UCR Data . . . 10 The UCR and NIBRS . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 III. Incomplete Crime Data . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Error Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Reasons for Incomplete Reporting . 16 IV. Incomplete Arrest Data . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 V. Processing and Publishing the Crime Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Publishing the UCR . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Archiving the UCR Data File . . . . . . 22 VI. Procedures Used for Imputing Crime Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 FBI Imputation Procedures for Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 NACJD Imputation Procedure . . . . 23 Imputation Procedures for Arrests . 24 Imputation and Zero-Population Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Updating UCR Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 VII. Inaccuracies Produced by the Imputation Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Incomplete-Reporting Agencies . . . 26 Non-Reporting Agencies . . . . . . . . . 26 Zero-Population Agencies . . . . . . . 26 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 VIII. Suggested Imputation Philosophy . . 28 Suggested Imputation . . . . . . . . . . 28 Zero-Population Agencies . . . . . . . . 29 Incomplete and Non-Reporting Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 IX. Supplementary Homicide Reports . . 31 Uses of the SHR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Incomplete Provision of SHR Data by Police Departments . . . . . . . . . . 33 Updating SHR Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Availability of SHR Data Sets . . . . . . 35 SHR Imputation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Weighting the Victim File . . . . . . . . . . 36 Weighting the Offender File . . . . . . . 37 Problems with This SHR Imputation Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Suggested Alternative SHR Imputation Procedure . . . . . . . . . . 39 X. Conclusions and Recommendations . 40 Reporting Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Publishing and Archiving . . . . . . . . . . 40 Imputation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 NIBRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Appendix A. Persons Attending the Workshop on UCR Imputation Procedures 43 Appendix B. State On-Line Publication of Crime Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Appendix C. Characteristics of State UCR Collection Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Appendix D. Extent of UCR Data Coverage, Alabama-Wyoming, 1958-97 . 47 Appendix E. Missing Data in UCR Files Used for the 1996 LLEBG Formula Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Extent of Missing Data, by State . . . 62 Characteristics of Agencies with Less than 36 Months of Violent Crime Data . . . . . . . . . . 64 Agencies with 0 Months of Data . . . 64 Jurisdictions with between 1 and 35 Months of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Impact of Incomplete Data . . . . . . . . 65 Addendum on Zeropop Agencies . 66 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72