NCJ Number
110204
Journal
American Journal of Police Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: (Fall 1987) Pages: 1-9
Date Published
1987
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The potential for abuse in collecting and reporting crime figures is a major concern for critics of the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR).
Abstract
One point at which the UCR figures could be distorted is at the classification of crimes into the Part I and Part II offense categories. The present paper examines the extent of misclassification by clerks and sergeants in one police department. The results indicate that better than 90 percent of all offenses are correctly classified by the clerks and sergeants. The largest sources of misclassification entail assaultive and theft offenses. (Author abstract)