2017 NCVRW Resource Guide: Crime and Victimization in the United States Fact Sheet
Crime & Victimization in the United States
2017 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week: Crime and Victimization Fact Sheets
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics’s National Crime Victimization
Survey (NCVS) are the two largest and most comprehensive resources for information relating to crime and victimization
in the United States. While the UCR and the NCVS serve separate purposes, they complement each other in a number
of ways. The most important distinction between the two is that the UCR reports information regarding crimes known
to law enforcement agencies (but cannot reflect unreported crime), while the NCVS measures reported and unreported
victimizations, helping researchers identify “the dark figure of crime”—those hidden victimizations that the UCR
is unable to track. Together the UCR and the NCVS provide researchers, policymakers, and the public with a general
understanding regarding the state of crime and victimization in the United States.
Uniform Crime Report
The Uniform Crime Report (UCR), launched in 1929, collects information reported to law enforcement agencies on the
following crimes: murder and non-negligent homicide, rape, ro
ery, aggravated assault, human trafficking, burglary,
larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
Law enforcement agencies also report a
est data for 22
additional crime categories (e.g., forgery and counterfeiting,
drug abuse violations, disorderly conduct, vagrancy). Each
year, the FBI issues a report on the main UCR findings, titled
Crime in the United States, as well as several other reports
(e.g., Hate Crimes 2015 and Law Enforcement Officers Killed
and Assaulted, XXXXXXXXXXThe UCR presents crime counts for the
entire nation, as well as for regions, states, counties, cities,
towns, tribal law enforcement, and colleges and universities.
Its primary purpose is to provide reliable criminal justice statistics for law enforcement administration and management.
National Crime Victimization Survey
The methodology for the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which began in 1973, differs from that of the UCR.
The NCVS is based on a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. Household members age 12 and older are
interviewed by the U.S. Census Bureau every 6 months for a 3-year period. The NCVS collects information on the frequency
and nature of: rape, sexual assault, ro
ery, aggravated and simple assault, household burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft.
It does not, however, measure homicide, commercial crimes,
crimes against residents under 12 years old, or crimes against
individuals in other residential settings (e.g., nursing homes,
long-term care facilities), and may exclude highly mobile
populations and people who are homeless.
It gathers information on crimes both reported and not
eported to the police, estimates the proportion of crimes
eported to law enforcement, and describes the reasons
victims gave for reporting or not reporting. The NCVS also
includes questions about victims’ experiences with the criminal justice system, possible substance use by offenders, and how
victims sought to protect themselves. The NCVS collects demographic information about both victims and offenders (e.g.,
age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, income, educational level, relationship between victim and offender), as well as
information about the crimes (including time and place of occu
ence, use of weapons, nature of injury, and economic impact).
The NCVS also collects periodic supplements on specific crime issues such as stalking or school crime.
UCR Crimes
• murde
non-negligent
manslaughte
• rape
• ro
ery
• aggravated assault
• human trafficking
• burglary
• larceny-theft
• motor vehicle theft
• arson
NCVS Crimes
• rape
• sexual assault
• ro
ery
• aggravated assault
• simple assault
• household burglary
• theft
• motor vehicle theft
RESOURCES
FBI, “Uniform Crime Reporting,” (U.S. Department of Justice),
https:
ucr.fbi.gov
Bureau of Justice Statistics, “National Crime Victimization Survey,” (U.S.
Department of Justice), https:
www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=245
UCR Improvements
1. Continuing the transition from SRS (the cu
ent
UCR method of data collection) to the National
Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) by
2021.
2. Providing researchers, policymakers, and the general
public with information regarding the use-of-
force or the discharge of a firearm by law
enforcement officers.
NCVS Improvements
1. Providing subnational estimates: While the
original purpose of the NCVS was to provide
estimates of victimization at the national level, the
NCVS subnational program underway will generate
victimization estimates for the 22 largest states.
2. Modernizing socio-demographic information
to reflect victimization by sexual orientation, gender
identity, veteran status, and citizenship.
3. Expanding the information collected about formal and
informal help-seeking behavior, issues related to
fear of crime, and perceptions of neighborhood
disorder and police performance.
4. Expanding the type of crimes collected in the NCVS,
including stalking and fraud.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics in partnership with the
Office for Victims of Crime is also launching the new Victim
Services Statistical Research Program (VSSRP) to build a
critical body of knowledge for the field by collecting and
analyzing national data from victims and the diverse
entities that serve them. In addition to data collected from
victims as described above, data collected directly from
entities that serve victims is important for understanding
whether providers have the capacity to meet the needs of
all victims seeking services. BJS’s VSSRP includes a number
of initiatives to collect information from victim service
providers, including the new National Census of Victim
Service Providers (NCVSP) and National Survey of Victim
Service Providers (NSVSP), both designed to help define and
enhance understanding of all types of providers in the field.
While the UCR and the NCVS are important resources for researchers, policymakers, and the public, they cannot address all
crimes or all victimizations. And though national collection efforts continue to grow, gaps still exist, particularly for emerging
crimes, including elder victimization, human trafficking, financial crime (especially Internet-based fraud), stalking, and mass
casualty crimes.
The Future of Crime and Victimization Research
In 2015, the UCR Program released a plan to improve and
modernize their data collection. Two key aspects of this
plan included:
The NCVS is also cu
ently undergoing a redesign. This
multi-year effort to fill long-standing gaps in information
will include:
Other efforts focus on particular types of service providers,
such as the collaboration between BJS and the National
Center for Health Statistics to develop a new National
Survey of Hospital Victim Services to better understand the
ange of hospital services available for crime victims. BJS
has also added questions about victim services to existing
surveys of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors’
offices. Together, all of these efforts will offer the most
comprehensive picture of victim service provision to date.
https:
ucr.fbi.gov
https:
ucr.fbi.gov
https:
www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=245
https:
www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=245
http:
www.ovc.gov
http:
www.victimsofcrime.org
https:
ucr.fbi.gov/ucr-publications
http:
www.ojp.gov
XXXXXXXXXXpdf
TENTH EDITION
CRIMINOLOGY
THEORIES, PATTERNS, AND TYPOLOGIES
La
y J. Siegel
University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States
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La
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This book is dedicated to my kids, Eric, Andrew, Julie, and Rachel, and to
my grandkids, Jack, Kayla, and Brooke. It is also dedicated to Jason Macy
(thanks for ma
ying Rachel) and Therese J. Li
y (thanks for ma
ying me).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
La
y J. Siegel was born in the Bronx in 1947. While living on Jerome
Avenue and attending City College of New York in the 1960s, he was swept up
in the social and political cu
ents of the time. He became intrigued with the
infl uence contemporary culture had on individual behavior: Did people shape
society or did society shape people? He applied his interest in social forces and
human behavior to the study of crime and justice. After graduating CCNY, he
attended the newly opened program in criminal justice at the State University
of New York at Albany, earning both his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees there. After
completing his graduate work, Dr. Siegel began his teaching career at North-
eastern University, where he was a faculty member for nine years. After leaving
Northeastern, he held teaching positions at the University of Ne
aska–Omaha
and Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire. He is cu
ently a professor at the
University of Massachusetts–Lowell. Dr. Siegel has written extensively in the area
of crime and justice, including books on juvenile law, delinquency, criminology,
criminal justice, and criminal procedure. He is a court certifi ed expert on police
conduct and has testifi ed in numerous legal cases. The father of four and
grandfather of three, La
y Siegel and his wife, Te
y, now reside in Bedford,
New Hampshire, with their two dogs, Watson and Cody.
BRIEF CONTENTS
PART ONE
CONCEPTS OF CRIME, LAW,
AND CRIMINOLOGY
CHAPTER 1
Crime and Criminology 2
CHAPTER 2
The Nature and Extent of Crime 28
CHAPTER 3
Victims and Victimization 68
PART TWO
THEORIES OF CRIME
CAUSATION
CHAPTER 4
Rational Choice Theory 94
CHAPTER 5
Trait Theories 128
CHAPTER 6
Social Structure Theories 176
CHAPTER 7
Social Process Theories 212
CHAPTER 8
Social Confl ict, Critical Criminology,
and Restorative Justice 244
CHAPTER 9
Developmental Theories: Life Course
and Latent Trait 270
PART THREE
CRIME TYPOLOGIES
CHAPTER 10
Interpersonal Violence 300
CHAPTER 11
Political Crime and Te
orism 334
CHAPTER 12
Property Crime 368
CHAPTER 13
Enterprise Crime: White-Collar and
Organized Crime 394
CHAPTER 14
Public Order Crime: Sex and Substance
Abuse 424
CHAPTER 15
Cyber Crime and Technology 466
v
Crime and the Criminal Law 18
Common Law 19
Contemporary Criminal Law 19
❚ PROFILES IN CRIME: The Mother of All Snakeheads 21
The Evolution of Criminal Law 21
❚ The Criminological Enterprise:
The Elements of Criminal Law 22
Ethical Issues in Criminology 23
What to Study? 24
Whom to Study? 24
How to Study? 24
CHAPTER 2
The Nature and Extent of Crime 28
Primary Sources of Crime Data: Record Data 30
Offi cial Record Research 30
The Uniform Crime Report 30
❚ PROFILES IN CRIME: A Pain in the Glass 33
Primary Sources of Crime Data: Survey Research 34
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) 34
Self-Report Surveys 35
Evaluating the Primary Sources of Crime Data 37
Secondary Sources of Crime Data 38
Cohort Research 38
Experimental Research 38
Preface xiv
PART ONE
CONCEPTS OF CRIME, LAW,
AND CRIMINOLOGY 1
CHAPTER 1
Crime and Criminology 2
What Is Criminology? 4
Criminology and Criminal Justice 4
Criminology and Deviance