The World of Computer Software/World_Of_Computer_Software-02-387-Vol-3of3.iso/f/fbi92-11.zip/4UCR.P15

Text File | 1992-12-07 | 13KB | 277 lines

November 1992

                 UCR'S BLUEPRINT FOR THE FUTURE

                              By

                       Victoria L. Major
                       Supervisory Writer
         Criminal Justice Information Services Division
                 Federal Bureau of Investigation
                        Washington,  DC


     Each month, for over 60 years, law enforcement agencies
across the country tallied crime, clearance, and arrest
statistics and sent them to the FBI.  The FBI, in turn, combined
the reports of thousands of agencies and published periodic
assessments on the amount, type, and trends in crime known to
law enforcement.  Soon, however, this cumbersome manual process
used by law enforcement agencies to record crime data will be
relegated to the annals of law enforcement history.

     The advent of the National Incident-Based Reporting System
(NIBRS) marks the transition to a modern automated system of
retrieving crime data directly from law enforcement records.
With NIBRS, law enforcement agencies can transfer directly crime
information needed at the national and State levels from local
computer systems through automated processes.  The crime
statistics database becomes much more comprehensive and flexible
than it ever was under the old-fashioned system that used
standardized reporting forms.

     While it will, of course, take time for the more than
16,000 law enforcement agency data contributors to institute
NIBRS, remarkable progress continues to be made.  As a result,
the criminal justice system can look forward to a wealth of
crime-related data in the foreseeable future.

BACKGROUND

     Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) is a nationwide cooperative
effort, the objective of which is to provide a reliable set of
criminal statistics for use in law enforcement administration,
operation, and management.  The data produced through the
program over the years represent one of the Nation's leading
social indicators, providing valid assessments of the nature,
extent, and fluctuations of crime in the United States.

     The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)
conceived the program in the 1920s when it recognized a need for
national crime statistics.  Unlike other free world countries,
no nationwide criminal code for "common law"-type offenses
existed in the United States.  That is, each State possessed a
unique criminal statute, thus precluding an aggregation of State
statistics to arrive at a national total.  There was, therefore,
no common language by which to measure the nature and extent of
crime in the country or from one jurisdiction to another.

     To respond to these needs, the IACP established a Committee
on Uniform Crime Records, and after years of study, the
committee developed a system that constituted the UCR Program
for over 6 decades.  The system included a set of standardized
definitions by which law enforcement agencies nationwide
voluntarily submitted crime data on a monthly basis.

     Establishing crimes reported to law enforcement as the
measurement, the committee selected seven offenses to comprise a
Crime Index that would be used to gauge changes in the nature
and extent of crime.  In 1930, approximately 400 law enforcement
agencies started reporting crime statistics, and in that same
year, Congress passed legislation authorizing the U.S. Attorney
General to collect these statistics.  The Attorney General, in
turn, designated the FBI to act as the national clearinghouse
for crimes known to law enforcement.  Today, over 16,000
agencies offering law enforcement service to over 96 percent of
the Nation's population voluntarily participate in the program.

LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE

     Throughout its first 60 years of operation, the UCR Program
remained virtually unchanged in terms of the data collected and
disseminated.  As time passed, a broad application evolved for
UCR, and law enforcement expanded its capabilities to supply
information related to crime.  In the late 1970s, the law
enforcement community called for a thorough evaluation of UCR,
with the objective of recommending a revised UCR Program to meet
law enforcement needs into the 21st century.

     The FBI fully concurred with the need for an updated
program to meet contemporary needs and lent its support by
formulating a comprehensive redesign effort.  Following a
multiyear study, the FBI developed a "Blueprint for the Future
of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program."

     Using the "blueprint," and in consultation with local and
State law enforcement executives, FBI personnel formulated new
guidelines for Uniform Crime Reports.  The new system offers law
enforcement more comprehensive data than ever before available
for management, training, and planning.

NATIONAL INCIDENT-BASED REPORTING SYSTEM

     NIBRS is an incident-based reporting system.  This means
that law enforcement agencies collect data on each single
occurrence by viewing a crime and all its components as an
"incident."  The FBI designed NIBRS to be generated as a
byproduct of law enforcement records systems.  Thus, reporting
agencies build their crime records systems to suit their
individual needs, with computer processes extracting NIBRS
information.

     UCR's goal in the redesign effort was to modernize crime
information by collecting data currently maintained in law
enforcement records.  The FBI evaluated all facets of NIBRS by
determining whether the information being considered for
inclusion was likely to come to law enforcement's attention and
ascertaining whether good law enforcement records systems
already captured the data.

     NIBRS collects data on each incident and arrest within 22
crime categories, including 46 specific offenses.  For each
offense reported, law enforcement agencies gather facts about
the crime, e.g., victim and offender characteristics, type of
property stolen, weapons used, location, etc., depending on the
availability of such information.

     Information on persons arrested will be gathered for an
additional 11 offense categories.  Above all, however, NIBRS
supports the integrity of UCR's long-running statistical series.

     NIBRS retains many of the general concepts for collecting
and reporting UCR data.  For example, the basic measurement
remains crimes reported to law enforcement, and standardized
definitions and guidelines exist for reporting all offenses and
facts about them.  However, as previously stated, the most
significant difference is that NIBRS is incident-based.  This
means that instead of tallying offense, arrest, and other
crime-related data on a monthly basis, law enforcement agencies
report NIBRS information for each individual crime incident and
arrest through automated data processing means.

     As added features, the new reporting system exhibits other
major differences.  For example, NIBRS involves expanded offense
reporting, increasing the number of categories from 8 to 22.  It
also provides greater specificity in reporting, up to 53 facts
about each offense, while allowing for more correlation among
offenses, property, victims, offenders, and arrestees.

BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATION

     An indispensable tool in the war against crime is law
enforcement's ability to identify with precision when and where
crime takes place, what form it takes, and the characteristics
of its victims and perpetrators.  Armed with such information,
law enforcement agencies can better make their case to acquire
the resources needed to fight crime.  After obtaining these
resources, agencies can then use them in the most efficient,
effective, and economical manner.

     NIBRS provides law enforcement with this tool.  Because of
its capabilities, it stores more detailed, accurate, and
meaningful data than what the traditional UCR Program captured.

     Many individual law enforcement agencies employ very
sophisticated records systems capable of producing the full
range of statistics on their own activities.  NIBRS takes the
process of data collection one step further by allowing common
denominator links among agencies.  It provides law enforcement
agencies with extensive, specific crime information concerning
similar jurisdictions which, in turn, facilitates the
identification of common problems or trends.  Agencies can then
work together to develop possible solutions or proactive
strategies for addressing the issues.

     But the availability of accurate, detailed crime data does
not benefit only law enforcement.  With NIBRS, lawmakers,
academicians, sociologists, penologists, and the American public
can now better assess the Nation's crime problem by using the
extensive data supplied by the law enforcement community.

     Law enforcement as a public service requires a full
accounting by criminal justice executives as to the
administration of their agencies and the status of public safety
within their jurisdictions.  With full participation in NIBRS,
these executives can access the information necessary to enable
law enforcement agencies to fulfill this responsibility.  In
fact, NIBRS possesses the capability of furnishing information
on nearly every major criminal justice issue facing law
enforcement today, including terrorism, white-collar crime,
weapons offenses, missing children, drug/narcotics offenses,
drug involvement in all offenses, spouse abuse, abuse of the
elderly, child abuse, domestic violence, juvenile crime/gangs,
parental kidnaping, organized crime, pornography/child
pornography, driving under the influence, and other
alcohol-related offenses.  All levels of law enforcement--
Federal, State, and local--can access the data, aggregated at
the level and in the manner that best meet the informational
needs of the data user.

IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS

     The implementation of NIBRS will be at a pace commensurate
with the resources, abilities, and limitations of the
contributing law enforcement agencies.  The FBI steadfastly
maintains that NIBRS' adoption should be, as UCR has always
been, voluntary on the part of the data providers.

     Thus, only when a law enforcement agency modifies or
updates its records system in the normal course of business
should NIBRS' capabilities be included.  Until that time, the
FBI will continue to accept and publish the traditional UCR
data, as well as to produce interim NIBRS reports addressing
data available from those jurisdictions that completed
conversion.  These interim reports serve as a supplement to
UCR's current publication series.

     The FBI began accepting NIBRS data as of January 1989, and
law enforcement agencies in six States (Alabama, Colorado,
Idaho, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Carolina) now supply data
in the NIBRS format.  Data for agencies in an additional 13
States and the Department of the Interior are currently being
tested by the FBI, and planning and development are underway in
25 other States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S.
Department of Commerce.

NIBRS REPORTING GUIDELINES

     Four documents contain information to guide law enforcement
agencies in implementing NIBRS. (1) Volume 1, "Data Collection
Guidelines," provides a system overview and descriptions of the
offenses, offense codes, reports, data elements, and data values
used in the system.  Volume 2, "Data Submission Specifications,"
is for the use of State and local computer systems personnel
responsible for preparing magnetic tapes for submission to the
FBI.  Volume 3, "Approaches to Implementing an Incident-Based
Reporting (IBR) System," is for use by computer programmers,
analysts, etc., responsible for developing a system that meets
NIBRS' requirements.  The use of this volume, intended only as a
guide, is optional.  Volume 4, "Error Message Manual," contains
designations of mandatory and optional data elements, data
element edits, and error messages.

     Also available is a NIBRS edition of the "Uniform Crime
Reporting Handbook."  This document, designed for use by local
law enforcement agencies, combines the traditional UCR rules
retained in NIBRS with the new NIBRS guidelines.

CONCLUSION

     The development of Uniform Crime Reports in the 1920s led
to the recognition of recordkeeping standards for law
enforcement throughout the Nation.  NIBRS implementation offers
today's law enforcement agencies the opportunity to modernize
their recordkeeping practices to meet ever-growing
informational needs.

     NIBRS heightens an agency's ability to document and easily
retrieve information about crime known to law enforcement,
leaving less room for speculation.  It also enhances data
quality assurance and virtually eliminates opportunities for
inconsistent reporting from one jurisdiction to another.  The
FBI remains committed, along with law enforcement at all levels,
to the successful implementation of NIBRS.  Through NIBRS will
come a greater understanding of law enforcement problems, and
that understanding will lead to the development of the most
effective strategies and countermeasures for the solution of
these problems.


ENDNOTE

     (1)  All NIBRS documents can be obtained by writing the
Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Federal Bureau of
Investigation, Washington, DC 20535.