About the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.
The FBI's UCR Program is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of more than 18,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention. Since 1930, the FBI has administered the UCR Program and has continued to assess and monitor the nature and type of crime in the nation. The program's primary objective is to generate reliable information for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management; over the years, however, the data have become one of the country's leading social indicators. Criminologists, sociologists, legislators, municipal planners, the media, and other students of criminal justice use the data for varied research and planning purposes.In 2012, law enforcement agencies active in the UCR Program represented more than 308 million United States inhabitants (98.1 percent of the total population). The coverage amounted to 98.9 percent of the population in Metropolitan Statistical Areas, 93.3 percent of the population in cities outside metropolitan areas, and 94.2 percent of the population in nonmetropolitan counties.
UCR advisory groups
The Criminal Justice Information Systems Committees of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) provide vital links between local law enforcement and the FBI in the oversight of the UCR Program. The IACP, representing the thousands of police departments nationwide, and the NSA, serving sheriffs throughout the country, encourage agencies to participate fully in the program. Both committees fulfill advisory capacities concerning the UCR Program's operation.
In 1988, a Data Providers' Advisory Policy Board was established to provide input for UCR matters. That Board operated until 1993 when it combined with the National Crime Information Center Advisory Policy Board to form a single Advisory Policy Board (APB) to address all issues regarding the FBI's criminal justice information services. The current APB ensures a continued emphasis on UCR-related issues. In addition, the
Association of State UCR Programs (ASUCRP) focuses on UCR issues within individual state law enforcement associations and promotes interest in the UCR Program. These organizations foster widespread and responsible use of uniform crime statistics and lend assistance to data contributors when needed.
Historical background of UCR
Recognizing a need for national crime statistics, the IACP formed the Committee on Uniform Crime Records in the 1920s to develop a system of uniform crime statistics. After studying state criminal codes and making an evaluation of the recordkeeping practices in use, the Committee completed a plan for crime reporting that became the foundation of the UCR Program in 1929. The plan included standardized offense definitions for seven main offense classifications known as Part I crimes to gauge fluctuations in the overall volume and rate of crime. Developers also instituted the Hierarchy Rule as the main reporting procedure for what is now known as the Summary Reporting System (SRS) of the UCR Program.
The seven Part I offense classifications included the violent crimes of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault as well as the property crimes of burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. By congressional mandate, arson was added as the eighth Part I offense category in 1979.
In January 1930, 400 cities representing 20 million inhabitants in 43 states began participating in the UCR Program. That same year, Congress enacted Title 28, Section 534, of the United States Code authorizing the Attorney General to gather crime information. The Attorney General, in turn, designated the FBI to serve as the national clearinghouse for the crime data collected. Every year since, data based on uniform classifications and procedures for reporting offenses and arrests have been obtained from the nation's law enforcement agencies.
Redesign of UCR
Although the data collected and disseminated by the UCR Program remained virtually unchanged throughout the years, in the 1980s, a broad utility had evolved for UCR. Recognizing the need for improved statistics, law enforcement called for a thorough evaluative study to modernize the UCR Program. The FBI concurred with the need for an updated program and lent its complete support, formulating a comprehensive three-phase redesign effort. The first two phases of this effort, guided by input from representatives of the FBI, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the IACP, and the NSA, culminated with the release of a comprehensive report.
The final report, the Blueprint for the Future of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (Blueprint), was released in May 1985. It specifically outlined three areas of enhancement to help the UCR Program meet future informational needs. First, agencies would use an incident-based system to report offenses and arrests. Second, the national UCR Program would collect data on two levels (i.e., limited and full participation), and third, the national UCR Program would introduce a quality assurance program.
In January 1986, the FBI began phase III of the redesign effort guided by the general recommendations set forth in the Blueprint. Contractors developed new data guidelines and system specifications while the FBI studied various state systems to select an experimental site to implement the redesigned program. Upon selecting the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), which enlisted the cooperation of nine local law enforcement agencies, the FBI developed automated data capture specifications to adapt the SLED's state system to the national UCR Program's standards, and the BJS funded the revisions. The pilot demonstration ran from March 1-September 30, 1987, and resulted in further refinement of the guidelines and specifications.
March 1-3, 1988, the FBI held a National UCR Conference to present the new system to
law enforcement and to obtain feedback on its acceptability. Attendees of the National UCR Conference passed three overall recommendations without dissent: first, that there be established a new, incident-based national crime reporting system; second, that the FBI manage this program; and third, that an APB composed of law enforcement executives be formed to assist in directing and implementing the new program. Furthermore, attendees recommended that the implementation of national incident-based reporting proceed at a pace commensurate with the resources and limitations of contributing law enforcement agencies.
Establishing the NIBRS
From March 1988 through January 1989, the FBI proceeded in developing and assuming management of the UCR Program's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and by April 1989, the national UCR Program received the first test submission of NIBRS data. Over the course of the next few years, the national UCR Program published information about the redesigned program in five documents:
* Data Collection Guidelines (revised August 2000) contains a system overview and descriptions of the offense codes, reports, data elements, and data values used in the system.
* Data Submission Specifications (May 1992) is for the use of local and state systems personnel who are responsible for preparing magnetic media for submission to the FBI.
* Approaches to Implementing an Incident-Based System (July 1992) is a guide for system designers.
* Error Message Manual (revised December 1999) contains designations of mandatory and optional data elements, data element edits, and error messages.
* Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook, NIBRS Edition (1992) provides a nontechnical program overview that focuses on definitions, policies, and procedures of the NIBRS.
Since then, the national UCR Program staff has presented additional documents including the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) Technical Specification (Version 1.0 dated April 16, 2012) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) User Manual (Version 1.0 dated January 17, 2013).
Originally designed with 52 data elements, the NIBRS captures up to 57 data elements via six types of data segments: administrative, offense, victim, property, offender, and arrestee. Although, in the late 1980s, the FBI committed to hold all changes to the NIBRS in abeyance until a substantial amount of contributors implemented the system, modifications have been necessary. The system's flexibility has allowed for the collection of four additional pieces of information to be captured within an incident: biasmotivated offenses (1990), the presence of gang activity (1997), data for law enforcement officers killed and assaulted (2003), and data on cargo theft (2005). It has also permitted the addition of new codes to further specify location types and property types (2010).
The FBI began accepting NIBRS data from a handful of agencies in January 1989. As more contributing law enforcement agencies became educated about the rich data available through incident-based reporting and as resources permitted, more agencies implemented the NIBRS. Based on 2012 data submissions, 15 states submit all their data via the NIBRS and 32 state UCR Programs are certified for NIBRS participation.
The FBI suspends the Crime Index and Modified Crime Index
In June 2004, the CJIS APB approved discontinuing the use of the Crime Index in the UCR Program and its publications, and it directed the FBI to publish a violent crime total and a property crime total. The Crime Index, first published in Crime in the United States in 1960, was the title used for a simple aggregation of the seven main offense classifications (Part I offenses) in the SRS. The Modified Crime Index was the number of Crime Index offenses plus arson.
For several years, the CJIS Division studied the appropriateness and usefulness of these indices and brought the matter before many advisory groups including the UCR Subcommittee of the CJIS APB, the ASUCRP, and a meeting of leading criminologists and sociologists hosted by the BJS. In short, the Crime Index and the Modified Crime Index were not true indicators of the degrees of criminality because they were always driven upward by the offense with the highest number, typically larceny-theft. The sheer volume of those offenses overshadowed more serious but less frequently committed offenses, creating a bias against a jurisdiction with a high number of larceny-thefts but a low number of other serious crimes such as murder and forcible rape.
Recent Developments in the UCR Program
At the fall 2011 CJIS APB meeting, the APB recommended, and FBI Director Robert Mueller III approved, changing the definition of rape. Since 1929, in the SRS, forcible rape had been defined as "the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will," (UCR Handbook, 2004, p. 19). Beginning with the 2013 data collection, the SRS definition for the violent crime of rape will be:
"Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."
This definition can be found in the Summary Reporting System [SRS] User Manual, Version 1.0 dated June 20, 2013. The FBI is developing reporting options for law enforcement agencies to meet this requirement which will be built into the redeveloped data collection system.
In addition to approving the new definition of rape for the SRS, the APB and Director Mueller approved removing the word "forcible" from the name of the offense and also replacing the phrase "against the person's will" with "without the consent of the victim" in other sex-related offenses in the SRS, the NIBRS, the Hate Crime Statistics Program, and Cargo Theft data collections.
In response to a directive by the U.S. Government's Office of Management and Budget, the national UCR Program has expanded its data collection categories for race from four (White, Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Asian or Other Pacific Islander) to five (White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander). Also, the ethnicity categories have changed from "Hispanic" to "Hispanic or Latino" and from "Non-Hispanic" to "Not Hispanic or Latino." The collection of race and ethnicity data in accordance with the revised categories began in 2013; those data will be reflected in future presentations.
Also, the national UCR Program staff has developed data collection methods to comply with both the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act of 2009. As a result, the FBI began accepting data on human trafficking as well as data on crimes motivated by "gender and gender identity" bias and "crimes committed by, and crimes directed against, juveniles" from contributors in January 2013. The new data will be reflected in future presentations.
UCR Redevelopment Project Update
The UCR Redevelopment Project (UCRRP) is in full swing as staff members work to improve the efficiency, usability, and maintainability of the UCR Program's submission processes, databases, and quality control activities. Through the UCRRP, the UCR Program will improve customer service by decreasing the time it takes to analyze data and by decreasing the time needed to release and publish crime data. The program will also enhance its external data query tool so that the public can view and analyze more published UCR data from the Internet.
Another major goal of the UCRRP is to reduce, to the point of elimination, the exchange of printed materials between submitting agencies and the FBI. Beginning with the 2013 data collections, all data must be submitted electronically, and after July 2013, the UCR Program will no longer accept paper submissions or the electronic submission of documents (i.e., Portable Document Format files). Currently, the UCRRP is working with agencies to help them adopt electronic submissions via the NIBRS, electronic SRS, or Extensible Markup Language.
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program Contacts Program Office Program administration; management; Telephone: (304) 625-4830 policy; processing of UCR Program Facsimile: (304) 625-3566 data; reporting problems; requests E-mail: ucrstat@leo.gov for reporting forms; data quality Information Dissemination Requests for published and Telephone: (304) 625-2000 unpublished data; printouts, Facsimile: (304) 625-3566 electronic media, and UCR E-mail: cjis_comm@leo.gov information and Web help Requests for Publications All requests for manuals, FBI's Web site: publications, UCR reporting www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr material or other published E-mail: cksupply@leo.gov products National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) Information for law enforcement Telephone: (304) 625-3092 agencies regarding the NIBRS Facsimile: (304) 625-3566 certification process; federal E-mail: cjis_comm@leo.gov funding for NIBRS-compliant records Attention: NIBRS Coordinator management systems; and data submission specifications Quality Assurance Assistance for law enforcement Telephone: (304) 625-2941 agencies in assessing the integrity Facsimile: (304) 625-3457 of their data and complying with E-mail: acjis@leo.gov program requirements Training/Education for Law Enforcement Law Enforcement requests for Telephone: 1 (888) UCR-NIBR training; information on police [827-6427] reporting systems; technical Facsimile: (304) 625-5599 assistance for law enforcement E-mail: UCRTrainers@leo.gov personnel Send correspondence to: Federal Bureau of Investigation Criminal Justice Information Services Division Attention: Uniform Crime Reports 1000 Custer Hollow Road Clarksburg, West Virginia 26306-0159 Directory of State Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Programs (1) Alabama Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center Suite 300 201 South Union Street Montgomery, Alabama 36130 (334) 517-2400 http://www.acjic.alabama.gov/ Alaska Alaska Department of Public Safety Criminal Records and Identification Bureau 5700 East Tudor Road Anchorage, Alaska 99507 (907) 269-5767 http://www.dps.alaska.gov/ statewide/ucr.aspx American Samoa Department of Public Safety Uniform Crime Reporting Record Office Post Office Box 1086 Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799 011 (684) 633-1111 Arizona Access Integrity Unit Uniform Crime Reporting Program Arizona Department of Public Safety Post Office Box 6638 Phoenix, Arizona 85005-6638 (602) 223-2488 http://www.azdps.gov/ Arkansas Arkansas Crime Information Center One Capitol Mall, 4D-200 Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 (501) 682-2222 http://acic.org/Pages/default.aspx California Department of Justice Criminal Justice Statistics Center Post Office Box 903427 Sacramento, California 94203-4270 (916) 227-3515 http://oag.ca.gov/ crime Colorado Uniform Crime Reporting Colorado Bureau of Investigation Suite 3000 690 Kipling Street Denver, Colorado 80215 (303) 239-4222 http: //www.colorado.gov/ cs/Satellite/CDPS- CBIMain/CBON/1251621089773 Connecticut Crimes Analysis Unit Connecticut State Police 1111 Country Club Road Middletown, Connecticut 06457-9294 (860) 685-8030 http:/ / www.ct.gov/despp/site/default.asp sp Delaware Delaware State Bureau of Identification Post Office Box 430 Dover, Delaware 19903-0430 (302) 672-5341 District of Crime Data Quality Division Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Room 4016 300 Indiana Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20001-2188 (202) 727-7765 http://www.mpdc.dc.gov/ Florida Uniform Crime Reports Florida Department of Law Enforcement Post Office Box 1489 Tallahassee, Florida 32302-1489 (850) 410-7121 http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/home.aspx Georgia Georgia Crime Information Center Georgia Bureau of Investigation Post Office Box 370748 Decatur, Georgia 30037-0748 (404) 270-8523 http://gbi.georgia.gov/ Guam Guam Police Department Planning, Research and Development Building #233 Central Avenue Tiyan, Guam 96913 011 (671) 475-8422 http://www.guampolice.com/GUAMPOLICE/Welcome.html Hawaii Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division Department of the Attorney General Suite 401 235 South Beretania Street Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 (808) 586-1150 http ://ag.hawaii.gov/ cpj a / Idaho Bureau of Criminal Identification Idaho State Police Suite 120 700 South Stratford Drive Meridian, Idaho 83642 (208) 884-7156 http://www.isp.idaho.gov/ Illinois Uniform Crime Reporting Program Illinois State Police Post Office Box 19461 Suite 400A 801 South Seventh Street Springfield, Illinois 62794 (217) 557-6482 http://www.isp.state.il.us/ Iowa Iowa Department of Public Safety Program Services Bureau 215 East Seventh Street Des Moines, Iowa 50319 (515) 725-6232 http://www.dps.state.ia.us/ Kansas Kansas Bureau of Investigation Incident Based Reporting Section Information Services Division 1620 Southwest Tyler Street Topeka, Kansas 66612 (785) 296-8279 http://www.accesskansas.org/kbi/ Kentucky Criminal Identification and Records Branch Kentucky State Police 1266 Louisville Road Frankfort, Kentucky 40601 (502) 227-8700 http://www.justice.ky.gov Louisiana Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement Louisiana Incident-Based Reporting/Uniform Crime Reporting Unit Post Office Box 3133 Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70821 (225) 342-1569 http://www.lcle.state.la.us Maine Records Management Services Uniform Crime Reporting Division Maine Department of Public Safety Maine State Police Suite 1 45 Commerce Drive Augusta, Maine 04333 (207) 624-7276 http:/ / www.maine.gov/dps/ Maryland Central Records Division Maryland State Police 1711 Belmont Avenue Baltimore, Maryland 21244 (410) 298-3444 Massachusetts Crime Reporting Unit Commonwealth Fusion Center Massachusetts State Police 124 Acton Street Maynard, Massachusetts 01754 (978) 451-3731 http://www.mass.gov/portal/ Michigan Crime Reporting Section Michigan State Police Post Office Box 30634 Lansing, Michigan 48909 (517) 241-1704 http://www.michigan.gov/msp Minnesota Minnesota Justice Information Services Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Minnesota Department of Public Safety 1430 Maryland Avenue East St. Paul, Minnesota 55106-2802 (651) 793-2400 http s://dps. mn.gov/ divisions/bca/Pages/default.aspx Missouri Missouri State Highway Patrol Criminal Justice Information Services Division Post Office Box 9500 1510 East Elm Street Jefferson City, Missouri 65102-9500 (573) 526-6278 http://ucr.mshp.dps.mo.gov/ucr/ucrhome.nsf/ Montana Montana Board of Crime Control Statistical Analysis Center Post Office Box 201408 Helena, Montana 59620-1408 (406) 444-4298 http://www.mbcc.mt.gov/ Nebraska Uniform Crime Reporting Section The Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Post Office Box 94946 Lincoln, Nebraska 68509-4946 (402) 471-3982 http://www.ncc.state.ne.us/ Nevada Uniform Crime Reporting Program Records and Technology Division Nevada Department of Public Safety Suite 100 333 West Nye Lane Carson City, Nevada 89706 (775) 684-6262 http://www.nvrepository.state.nv.us/ New Hampshire Uniform Crime Reporting Unit New Hampshire State Police New Hampshire Department of Public Safety 33 Hazen Drive Concord, New Hampshire 03305 (603) 223-3869 New Jersey Uniform Crime Reporting Unit New Jersey State Police Post Office Box 7068 West Trenton, New Jersey 08628-0068 (609) 882-2000 x2392 http:// www.njsp.org/ New York Office of Justice Research and Performance New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services 8th Floor 4 Tower Place Albany, New York 12203 (518)485-7942 http://www.criminaljustice.state.ny.us/ North Carolina Crime Reporting State Bureau of Investigation Post Office Box 29500 Raleigh, North Carolina 27626-0500 (919) 662-4500 http:/ / www.ncdoj .gov/ North Dakota Information Services Section Attorney General's Office Bureau of Criminal Investigation Post Office Box 1054 Bismarck, North Dakota 58502-1054 (701) 328-5527 http://www.ag.nd.gov/ Ohio (2) Ohio Department of Public Safety Office of Criminal Justice Services 1970 West Broad Street Columbus, Ohio 43223 (614) 466-7782 http://www.ocjs.ohio.gov/ Oklahoma Uniform Crime Reporting Section Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation 6600 North Harvey Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73116 (405) 879-2533 http:/ / www.ok.gov/ osbi/ Oregon Oregon Uniform Crime Reporting Oregon State Police Post Office Box 14360 Salem, Oregon 97309-5074 (503) 378-3055 x55002 http://www.oregon.gov/ osp/cj is/Pages/index.aspx Pennsylvania Bureau of Research and Development Pennsylvania State Police 1800 Elmerton Avenue Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17110 (717) 783-4776 http://www.paucrs.pa.gov/UCR/ ComMenuUI.asp Puerto Rico Statistics Division Puerto Rico Police Post Office Box 70166 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-8166 (787) 793-1234 x3114 http://www.policia.gobierno.pr/ Rhode Island Uniform Crime Reporting Unit Rhode Island State Police 311 Danielson Pike North Scituate, Rhode Island 02857-1907 (401) 444-1156 http://www.risp.ri.gov/ South Carolina South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Post Office Box 21398 Columbia, South Carolina 29221-1398 (803) 896-7981 http://www.sled.sc.gov/ South Dakota South Dakota Statistical Analysis Center George S. Mickelson Building Suite 5 1302 East Highway 14 Pierre, South Dakota 57501-8505 (605) 773-6312 http://www.dci.sd.gov/ Tennessee Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Crime Statistics Unit 901 R.S. Gass Boulevard Nashville, Tennessee 37216-2639 (615) 744-4014 http://www.tbi.state.tn.us/ Texas Uniform Crime Reporting Crime Information Bureau Texas Department of Public Safety Post Office Box 4143 Austin, Texas 78765 (512) 424-2418 http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/ Utah Uniform Crime Reporting Bureau of Criminal Identification Utah Department of Public Safety Post Office Box 148280 Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-8280 (801) 965-4454 http://publicsafety.utah.gov/bci/ Vermont Vermont Criminal Information Center 103 South Main Street Waterbury, Vermont 05671 (802) 244-8727 http://dps.vermont.gov/ Virginia Criminal Justice Information Services Division Virginia State Police Post Office Box 27472 Richmond, Virginia 23261-7472 (804) 674-2143 http://www.vsp.state.va.us/Crime_in_Virginia.shtm Virgin Islands Planning, Research, and Development Bureau Virgin Islands Police Department Alexander Farrelly Justice Complex Charlotte Amalie Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands 00802 (340) 715-5505 Washington Uniform Crime Reporting Program Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs 3060 Willamette Drive, NE Lacey, Washington 98516 (360) 486-2380 http://www.waspc.org/ West Virginia Uniform Crime Reporting Program West Virginia State Police 725 Jefferson Road South Charleston, West Virginia 25309 (304) 746-2474 http://www.wvsp.gov/Pages / default.aspx Wisconsin Statistical Analysis Center Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance Suite 615 1 South Pinckney Street Madison, Wisconsin 53703 (608) 266-3323 http://www.oja.wi.gov/ Wyoming Uniform Crime Reporting Division of Criminal Investigation 208 South College Drive Cheyenne, Wyoming 82002 (307) 777-7625 http://wyomingdci.wyo.gov/ (1) The following states do not have State UCR Programs: Indiana, Mississippi, and New Mexico. Participating agencies in these states submit their data directly to the FBI. (2) The Ohio State UCR Program collects data only from agencies that report via the National Incident-Based Reporting System. Ohio agencies that use the Summary Reporting System submit UCR data directly to the FBI.
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Publication: | Uniform Crime Reports: Hate Crime Statistics |
|---|---|
| Date: | Jan 1, 2012 |
| Words: | 3792 |
| Previous Article: | Tables by title. |
| Next Article: | Feedback for Hate Crime Statistics, 2012. |
| Topics: | |