crime stats
Crime statistics are not what we are led to believe We hear a lot about the crime rates going up and down from the media and they tend to expand on specific types of criminal behavior that might be of interest to the public. When politicians are running for office we are told that the crime rates are down due to the tough crime policies that they have been implemented. Citizens seek crime rates for assistance in determining if the area they reside in is safe. Some people wish to get a general idea of the crime rates for a specific neighborhood where they are thinking of purchasing a house. But what is never explained is where do the crime statistics come from and were there any factors that could have had an effect on their reliability. Crime statistics, which are created from what is reported to the police, are often unreliable. There are several influential factors that can make crime statistics both increase and decrease at any time. Most police departments, but not all, use Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) to submit their statistics to the state. Attempting to compare two police agency's crime statistics is almost impossible because not all police agencies use the UCR program for classifying crimes. UCR is a national data reporti
An example; during a traffic stop, with four citizens in the vehicle, an officer finds a bag of marijuana in the center console of the vehicle. In lower income areas, residents do not report crimes as often because of fear of retaliation and not wanting the "bad guys" to label them as being informants to the police. In recent years there has been an increase in reporting mainly due to more resources available in the community, education for officers and the public. Each police department maintains and regulates their own set of rules and regulations. Statistical information is available upon request from the government and should only be considered an estimate of the true crime rates. Domestic violence is currently a very large problem in society today. Police officers create crime data by completing and submitting crime reports and arrest reports. The public doesn't get an unbiased opinion of what actually occurred or a chance to know all of the facts. Several residences can be burglarized in a neighborhood within a short time period. Police discretion plays a major role in crime statistics since there are several occasions when an officer will not make an arrest nor take a complaint. These reports include all of the pertinent information necessary for the committed crime(s) for a specific incident. ng policy that is maintained by the state and regulated by the FBI. What are the problems that occur due to these unreliable statistics? When there is a substantial decrease in crime the public perceives that the local police agency as keeping the crimes down in their neighborhoods. The officer would create a report putting the over exaggerated crime(s) on it. One such factor is an increase in households being left unattended.
Common topics in this essay:
Traffic Law,
Procedures SOP,
Policing COP,
Reporting UCR,
,
crime statistics,
crime rates,
police department,
officer arrest,
crimes reported,
hierarchy scale,
police officers,
police departments,
police agencies,
trust police,
marijuana officer arrest,
trust police department,
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