Brown: Criminology, 8th Edition


Case Studies

3. Production of Crime Statistics

Julie is a senior in high school and is planning her senior trip. She and her friends want to travel to Panama City, Florida, for the vacation. After hearing about the potential location, her mother did a few Google searches to find out more about the city, particularly with regard to the amount of crime it has had. Julie’s mother found the Uniform Crime Reports on the FBI’s web page and noticed that crime rates reported by the UCR for Panama City were very high. She is now very reluctant to allow Julie to go on this trip. She doesn’t want her daughter in a location where there is a lot of criminal activity and wants to try to find a “safer” place for Julie to go.

Questions

  1. Why might Julie’s mother’s interpretation of the UCR crime rate be incorrect?

    Correct Answer

    She probably does not know how to interpret crime rates, or what specific crimes are counted in the Uniform Crime Report.

  2. Would it be accurate to say that, based on the UCR information, Panama City has a much higher crime rate than other cities?

    Correct Answer

    No. The UCR does not account for individuals who are not residents of a given location, such as tourists. When tourist crime is committed, it is still counted and adds to the crime rate, but does not add to the population of a given location.

  3. What are some other possible reasons the crime rate found may be inaccurate?

    Correct Answer

    UCR data is vulnerable to  political manipulation and can be distorted based on population. The data is collected only by law enforcement, so it only records crimes that were reported to the police. It does not include all crimes committed.

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