Nationally, crime statistics come from two major reporting sources; the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The data collected through the UCR and the NIBRS is used by Congress to make decisions toward the policies and to allocate federal criminal justice funding to the states. In order for Congress to make these policy decisions based on statistical information, there has to be an understanding of how each program will collect ad report crime date. However, there are also limitations associated with data input through both of these reporting systems.
The UCR was enacted when the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) recognized the need for crime statistics to inform of the national crime rates throughout the nation in the 1920s. This was an effort to create a national standardized measurement of different incidences of crime being committed. However, it was originally conceived in an effort to measure the effectiveness of local law enforcement agencies to aid law enforcement with the data needed to use in the help to fight crime in their jurisdictions. The UCR is a combined city, county, state, and Federal law enforcement program. …show more content…
However, the FBI notes, “it pales next to the capabilities and potential of the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS).” The goal is to enhance the timeliness, quality and quantity of crime data collection. Additionally, it provides to improve the methodology that is used in compiling, analyzing, auditing, and the publishing of collected crime statistics (*******). The NIBRS offers law enforcement agencies and the academic community with a more comprehensive amount of data than ever before available. The implementation of NIBRS will be at a pace commensurate with the resources, abilities and limitations of the contributing law enforcement