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Crime Rates in America

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Crime Rates In America
Elliot H. Maysonet
CJA/204
08 April 2013
Prof. Ron Alter

Crime Rates In America
In society’s day and age, Americans believe that crime has been steadily increasing. This perspective is based on information provided to the public by criminologist. Our society relies heavily on statistical data to measure criminality and the effectiveness of the laws that govern society. This data is collected and formulated to create what is known as national crime reports. These reports were implemented to improve the structure of the laws that govern our society. In addition these reports record criminal activity, the type of crimes committed, the locations of criminal trends, the volume of crimes committed, and the effectiveness of the agencies within the Criminal Justice System. The question to ask is, are these reports accurate or are they deceiving to the public?
In this paper we will discus crime rates in America. We will also discus the intended purpose of the Uniform Crime Report (UCR), the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), and whether these reports are deceiving to the public. We will discus the relation between crime rates and arrest rates and how we can use crime rates, arrest rates, and clearance rates to combat criminal activity in America. While conducting my research on the topic of crime rates in America, I have found that there are several ways crime rates can be deceiving. The first would be the lack of clarity in the national crime reports. When looking at the different crime reports, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), we must remember that we are not reviewing crime rates in its actuality. These reports are not based on crimes committed, but are based on crimes that have been reported to

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