Crime in the United States has been reported for decades with variations witnessed from time to time. The crime rates are reported by the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program that has been established across the entire nation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Another technique used to capture crime statistics for reporting is crime mapping. It is an analysis process designed to map, identify, and analyze the crime hot spots and the trends of committing criminal offenses. The current paper researches on how the criminal reporting statistics have helped the people and the police in United States to reduce crime.
The Uniform Crime Reporting program was established by the FBI in 1920s to cater for the increased need for uniform national crime data and information. The program covers all the 43 states in the United States and it has gained nationwide acceptance by the Unites States people who appreciate the importance of crime analysis. The program uses the crime reports, arrest incidences, and police service calls to identify the newly emerging crime trends as soon as possible. Since the introduction of the digital technology era, the FBI has advanced to use of automated crime reporting, mobile crime tracking and other crime detection technologies discovered currently. Such technology has made the statistics to me more valid for use in fight against crime.
The Uniform Crime Reporting Program collects statistics on property crime and violent crimes committed in the United States than the reports are published every year in Crime in the United States (CIUS) publication (Addington & Rennison, 2014). The law enforcement agencies such as the police can assess these statistics and use them in their mission to combat crime. The members of the public can also access the reports freely and use the information to analyze the security status in various parts of the United States. Therefore, these statistics and reports by FBI help the police forces and the community at large in many different ways.
The criminal reporting statistics in United States have helped the police to combat crime in both the cities and remote areas.
Through the use of the crime statistics, the police have been able to predict future occurrences of crime (Addington & Rennison, 2014). The criminal reports analyzes the patterns of the criminal activities occurring across United States hence, the police can effectively forecast the possible targets of the future crimes. The police forces are thought to benefit more from the intelligence reports given out by the FBI because they provide important elements useful in dealing with crime in United States. Since the introduction of the Uniform Criminal Reporting program by FBI, the crime rates have drastically dropped.
The law enforcement agencies as well as the government use the criminal report analysis provided by the FBI to formulate new policies. The drafting of new regulations and policies in relation to security is accelerated by the outcome of the analysis of the criminal reports. Security personnel in United States use these reports to develop more effective strategies and techniques of handling the crime issue in the country. The issue of crime in United States is very dynamic and it requires continuous analysis to keep the criminal reports updated.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation performs very detailed investigation on crime occurrences that the general police forces cannot manage. Therefore, the police rely very much on the information provided by the FBI in its criminal reporting statistics and crime mapping results (Penney, 2014). The criminal reports provided by FBI are very diverse and have a lot of information that is quite useful in dealing with crime. The police use the reports to get the fine details of any crime activity that has occurred in any part of United States without their awareness. The contribution made by these reports into the police operations is very significant because most of the police evidence used in prosecution processes is provided by the FBI reports.
The crime analysts in the Federal Bureau of Investigation uses the technique of crime mapping to produce criminal reports and statistics that are useful to law enforcers. The law enforcement agencies such as the police use the information from crime mapping to make informed decisions and develop strategies that are tactical enough to reduce criminal activities. They use the reports to manage crime forecasting thus helping the forces to prepare for the future crimes that may occur. Crime mapping also facilitates regional profiling of the crime hotspots in order to concentrate all their security concerns in those areas. Identification of the crime zones helps the law enforcement agencies to deal with crime threats in a better way.
Information from crime mapping reports help the police to reduce crime occurrences to a large extend. This is achieved because the police target much of their resources and new security programs to areas that are highly stricken by criminal cases (Penney, 2014). They manage the crime issues at lower levels thus, making it easy to understand the causes of the crimes and how to deal with them. Identification of crime hotspots is very important to the law enforcement agencies because it helps to combat the crime in its initial stages before it spreads to other parts of the country.
The criminal reports and crime mapping analysis provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation are useful to the United States community in many ways. The statistics provided in the criminal reports helps those individuals who have been affected by such crimes to receive justice. The reports on crimes provide the courts with valid evidence that enables the judges to make fair ruling on criminal cases. As a result, the U.S people find the police system as well as the judicial system effective due to the presence of crime reports from FBI.
The crime reports have also helped to reduce crime activities in United States by a large margin. The community is therefore expected to prosper considering the high security that prevails in the cities and the remote areas. The police with the help of crime reports from FBI have been able to combat crime thus relieving the members of the community from the threat of criminal acts committed against them in their daily operations. Although the crime reports provided by the FBI are of great importance to the community, the crime mapping report ranks higher than crime reports in terms of their significance on the lives of Americans.
The crime mapping website in United States provides online services were the members of the public can freely analyze detailed maps of the of the most current crime spots within their state. This service provides detailed information that analyzes each part of the country thus promoting strong community policing efforts (Townsley, 2014).The fact that the crime data for every region is updated on regular basis proves that the citizens are made aware of all the crime activities occurring in their places and the neighborhood. Through this reports, the community remains updated about the crime occurrences in their workplaces, their areas of residence or even their siblings schools thus enabling them to remain cautious in their endeavors. The members of the community are sensitized to avoid the crime hot spots to avoid further damages caused by the criminal activities.
The community groups in the United States are entitled to access instant information about criminal issues in their surroundings (Townsley, 2014). This helps them to work hand in hand with the law enforcement agencies to solve the security issue in better ways. The information communicated to the community is thoroughly tested for accuracy and completeness to ensure that the crime reports maintain high credibility and reputation on the minds of the people. However, in cases of errors in the reports, the reporting agency is responsible for the results achieved from use of erroneous information. All these reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation are very useful to both the law enforcement agencies especially the police and the community.
Apart from the crime mapping analysis, the community benefits from the crime reports provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Americans use such statistics to evaluate the effectiveness of the security policies and strategies adopted by both the state and federal governments (Jacobs & Eisler, 2013). Many of the Americans are very much concerned about security conditions in their states hence the crime reports are helpful in analyzing the trend of the criminal occurrences in United States. The community uses the crime reports to formulate more advanced techniques of crime reduction through community policing programs in their respective regions.
The law enforcement agencies may determine some percentage of the information reported in the crime reports by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The Uniform Crime Reports program by FBI records information on the crime reports based on the arrest cases reported by the local police departments located across the entire country. These statistics are prone to suspicion because the local police records do not capture all the crimes committed within their jurisdiction. Therefore, crime analysts from the FBI are limited to the information provided by the local police thus the police have some influence in determining what to be included in the crime report or not.
The local police crime records cannot be shared or compared across different jurisdictions hence the data may be somehow biased. This is because the some of the police departments adopt policies of aggressive arrest of criminals thus creating the possibility of recording more crime rates than those police departments that arrest for serious crimes only. The only crime that is taken serious by all the local police departments is the homicide crime because it is reported by civilians to the police for clear recording.
Therefore, the FBI mainly draws their conclusion about the data from statistics on homicide crimes.
Most of the FBI information contained in their crime reports depends much on the police arrests in all parts of United States. This shows that the statistics are influenced by the diverse behaviors of the police in different localities (Jacobs & Eisler, 2013). Some police departments choose to arrest all criminal offenders, others arrest serious crimes only. In addition, others arrest based on the degree of suspicion on the criminals while others arrest only after confirming the crime. Moreover, one local police department may have more officers while others may lack enough officers to identify and arrest the criminals.
This numerous variances among the local police departments produces different arrest statistics hence affecting the validity of the crime data provided on crime reports provided by FBI. Considering the current development of the security department in United States, the local police departments are undergoing aggressive reforms that are meant to harmonize the crime rates reported from the police arrests. Due to these reforms, the police department has grown but this does not guarantee accurate data on crime rates. Therefore, the police departments use the arrest information to influence what the FBI reports in its crime reports.
The police in United States can influence the data recorded in the crime reports by FBI through manipulation of the crime rates.
The police manipulated the statistics of the crime cases recorded in order to suit their targets. For example, some local police departments in different states may present large numbers of crimes in order to receive more money from the government funding. In contrast, they may lower the values to demonstrate that their crime reduction policies and strategies are effective when in reality they are not performing well. Through those methods the police are in high position of influencing what is to be included in the reports or not.
Any community forms the bases upon which, problems to do with crime in the country are solved. Since crime is committed in the community by the members of the society, an approach of the crime eradication or crime reduction should focus on the information provided by the citizens (Cole, Smith & DeJong, 2014).. In America the citizens have a lot of influence on the information reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its crime reports and crime mapping analysis. The community dictates what is included in the reports because they are the main source of the crime information since they witness or experience the criminal activities.
The local police departments may not be aware of some crimes happening in the community. Crimes such as homicide may never be exposed to the police because the witnesses or the affected are afraid of testifying. Many of the police departments rely on the members of the public to get information about crimes that occur within their jurisdiction. The same information provided by the citizens is conveyed to the FBI for statistical analysis and production of crime reports. Therefore, it is evident that the community determines what the FBI reports because they provide the detailed information at the scene of the crime. As a result, the security department encourages all the Americans to report any criminal incidences without fear of victimization.
During the crime mapping processes, the community policing groups are very much involved because they have fine details about the main scenes of crime in their locality (Cole, Smith & DeJong, 2014). The identification of crime hot spots is controlled by the people living around the areas because they are either victims or witnesses of the criminal acts. Although the crime analysts have knowledge on investigating crime, they depend more on the community to acquire critical information that is used in the investigation process. Therefore, the community plays a major role in crime reporting and crime mapping just as the police do hence their influence cannot be undermined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its criminal reporting statistics.
In conclusion, as much as the American community and law enforcement agencies such as police influence what is included in the crime reports provided by FBI, they derive very many benefits from such reports. The police use the crime reports to formulate new polices and strategies to deal with crime issues in the society. The police also use such reports to make crime forecasting thus enabling them to get prepared for future crimes to happen. The community relies on the FBI information on crime mapping to be aware of the crime hot spots in their locality so as to avoid crime zones and promote the community policing programs. The police influence the information included in the crime reports through the police arrest reports that are used to make statistical analysis of the crime rate in United States. The community determined the information included because they are responsible for providing first-hand information from the scene of crime as witnesses or victims.
