NCJ Number
220758
Journal
Criminology & Public Policy Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2007 Pages: 825-834
Date Published
November 2007
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This essay explains why the Nation's capacity to monitor crime rates will be served by transferring the Nation's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).
Abstract
The UCR, which tracks crimes known to police, has never been a central function of the FBI, and has even less priority under the FBI's increased focus on terrorism, cyber crime, and high-tech crimes. Had the BJS existed 75 years ago when the UCR was initiated, it would certainly have been assigned the responsibility for developing and managing the compiling of local crime statistics. The BJS has had nearly 30 years of experience in managing a nationwide crime victimization survey and many other major data collections. Also, local police departments have become frustrated with the FBI's sluggish response to their information needs. When pressed to respond to this frustration, the Justice Department sent BJS personnel to consult with local police departments. Moving the UCR program to the BJS is a necessary but not sufficient condition to upgrade the Nation's crime monitoring capabilities. The BJS must be given the resources required for more rapid dissemination of crime data. Quarterly and eventually monthly dissemination of summary crime data should be the goal, with dissemination of the annual data within 3 months of the collection year as a reasonable interim target. 21 references