What Is the Uniform Crime Report?

The Uniform Crime Report program provides extensive data on national crime rates.

During the late 1920s, U.S. police chiefs saw a need for reliable crime data that would assist them in tracking fluctuations in national, state and local crime rates. This led to the creation of the Uniform Crime Report program.

Identification

The Uniform Crime Report program collects crime statistics from thousands of law enforcement agencies across the nation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collects and publishes these statistics in a series of annual volumes. According to the FBI, nearly 17,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States participate in the Uniform Crime Report program. Participation in the program is voluntary.

History

In the late 1920s, the International Association of Chiefs of Police sought reliable national crime statistics. In 1930, the chiefs association received approval for the Uniform Crime Report program from Congress.

Function

Law enforcement officials, criminologists and other researchers, the media and members of the public use the data collected through the Uniform Crime Report program for a variety of purposes. The statistics enable officials and others to monitor changes in crime rates over time, observe crime rates across regions, and conduct research. The FBI provides law enforcement agencies with a handbook of procedures for reporting crime statistics to ensure uniform reporting of the data.

Features

Data provided by law enforcement agencies through the Uniform Crime Report program include statistics at the incident, agency and county level, according to information from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report website. Incident-level data include criminal incidents and arrests in almost two dozen offense categories. The National Incident-Based Reporting System, a component of the Uniform Crime Report program, collects the incident-level data. County-level data consists of adult and juvenile arrests, as well as reported crimes. Agency-level statistics include known offenses, stolen and recovered property, homicides, hate crimes, and police officers killed or assaulted in the line of duty.

Types

The FBI publishes several annual volumes of crime statistics, based on data collected nationwide through the Uniform Crime Report program. The largest volume is the "Crime in the United States" report, which contains annual statistics on murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, assault, motor vehicle theft, arson and other offenses. The report displays statistics at the national and state levels, as well as by county and local police agencies. Other reports published through the Uniform Crime Report program include "Hate Crime Statistics" and "Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted."

Warning

Because a wide variety of sociological factors influence crime, the FBI discourages using Uniform Crime Report data to measure the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies or to draw comparisons between regions or metropolitan areas.

References

• FBI: Uniform Crime Reporting Program FAQ
• FBI: A Word About UCR Data

Resources

• FBI: Uniform Crime Reports