2.3 Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report
2.3 Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) is the oldest, largest, and most commonly used crime data collection system. The UCR tracks the known occurrences of specific crimes that have been reported to the police and the number of arrests made as a result. The goal of the UCR is to gather and provide reliable information to law enforcement so they can make data-informed decisions in their policies and practices. Although the intended audience has predominantly been law enforcement, anyone is able and encouraged to access and use this database.
You have the option to find out by exploring the publicly available UCR website and their Crime Data Explorer tool [Website].
To look at the most recent data, follow steps 1–4, and answer questions 5 and 6.
- Go to the Crime Data Explorer and scroll down to “Explore by Location and Dataset.”
- Select “Crime” and your state (e.g., Oregon) under the dropdown boxes.
- You can then filter by agency—try your local county agency first (e.g., Jackson County Sheriff’s Office).
- Try your local municipal agency next if you have one (e.g., Medford Police Department).
- What differences do you see when you compare the two agencies?
- How can the information from both local agency types help create a picture of crime in your community?
This database is used by law enforcement, researchers, the media, students, and the public. It was started in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to meet the need for reliable crime statistics for the country. In 1930, the FBI was put in charge of collecting, publishing, and archiving those statistics. In 2021, the FBI formally transitioned to a newer single data collection process.
There are over 18,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies in the United States. They are all asked to voluntarily participate in the UCR program by submitting their data on the number of crimes reported and number of arrests in their jurisdiction to the FBI each month. Note that participation is voluntary. That means submitting data to the UCR is strongly encouraged, but it is not required.
The FBI recognizes the voluntariness of the program and that the contributing factors to crime rates cannot be represented in these data. They explain, “Since crime is a sociological phenomenon influenced by a variety of factors, the FBI discourages ranking locations or making comparisons as a way of measuring law enforcement effectiveness. Some of this data may not be comparable to previous years because of differing levels of participation over time” (FBI, 2022a). In addition to pointing out that voluntary participation means differing levels of reporting over time, they also specifically recognize that crime is not a simple, straightforward act. As criminologists argue, crime is influenced by many factors, and none of those are recorded in this (or any) database. In fact, no simpl