Interpreting UCR Statistical Data from a Chart

Instructions

Chapter 1 of our class textbook goes into detail about the Uniform Crime Report (UCR). You should also seriously consider visiting the UCR page (click here (Links to an external site.)).Please respond to the following, paraphrasing information based on your understanding. Your essay must be 2-3 pages double-spaced with 12 point font and 1 inch margins on each side. You must also cite the textbook and any additional sources you may refer to. Divide your essay into four parts as followed:

Part 1:

1. Summarize what the UCR is and what it does.

2. Pages 7-11 of our class textbook features a detailed overview of UCR data. Notice how index are listed. Eight index crimes are listed, in which five are classified as violent offenses (homicide, rape*, robbery, and aggravated assault) and four are classified as property offenses (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson). Please choose a total of 4 offenses to briefly describe, including at least one violent index crime and one property index crime. Please keep your descriptions brief, one to two sentences each.

Example: “Driving under the influence involves driving while intoxicated with alcohol or other drugs that could impair the ability to drive. The amount of alcohol or other drugs in somebody’s body needed to meets the legal definition for driving under the influence can vary across jurisdictions. ”

*Note: If you choose to use rape in this assignment, you must identify which definition of rape is being used by the UCR. It is described in your textbook.

Part 2:

3. Interpret the statistics provided on the chart with the four crimes you defined in question 2.

Example: “The total amount of driving under the influence arrests in the U.S. in 2006 was 929,903. 24.6 percent of these arrests were against females, 75.4 percent were against men and boys that year females. The arrest rates against females overall for driving under the influence rose 23.4 percent between 2006 and 2015. For males overall, the amount of driving under the influence arrests dropped during this time period. The driving under the influence arrest rates for boys and men combined dropped 18 percent between 2006 and 2015. When men were removed from the equation, the arrest rate of boys under 18 for this offense dropped 54.5 percent during this timeframe.”

Part 3:

4. Based on the data in Part 2, what trends to you notice? For example, how many of the crimes you analyzed based on UCR data are women mostly arrested for and how many are men most commonly arrested for? How wide are the gender gaps? Do you notice any similarities and differences across crimes in terms of crime rates? Do these crime rate comparisons across time vary in terms of gender?

Part 4:

5. What do you think are the main strengths and limitations of the UCR as tool for reporting crime data? In what ways is this most useful and least useful? In addition to providing knowledge about arrest rates, please also write about how these statistics can be applied practically. That is, how may the information be useful in terms of guiding programs, policies, enforcement strategies, advocacy, and further research; and what are limitations to the UCR data in terms of practical application?