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The Uniform Crime Reports are published by the United States Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. The UCR Program is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of over 18,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, federal, and other law enforcement agencies who voluntarily report data on crimes brought to their attention. Since 1930, the FBI has administered the UCR Program. The program's primary objective is to generate reliable information for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management. However, over the years, UCR data have become one of the country's leading social indicators. Criminologists, sociologists, legislators, municipal planners, the media, and other students of criminal justice use the data for varied research and planning purposes.
The UCR Program consists of four data collections:
The FBI publishes annual data from these collections in Crime in the United States, Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, and Hate Crime Statistics.
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Providing vital links between local law enforcement and the FBI in the oversight of the UCR Program are the Criminal Justice Information Systems Committees of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA). The IACP, representing the thousands of police departments nationwide, and the NSA, serving sheriffs throughout the country, encourage agencies to participate fully in the program. Both committees serve in advisory capacity to the UCR Program.
In 1988, a Data Providers' Advisory Policy Board was established to provide input for UCR matters. The Board operated until 1993 when it combined with the National Crime Information Center Advisory Policy Board to form a single Advisory Policy Board (APB) to address all issues regarding the FBI's criminal justice information services. In addition, the Association of State UCR Programs (ASUCRP) focuses on UCR issues within individual state law enforcement associations and also promotes interest in the national UCR Program. These organizations foster widespread and responsible use of UCR statistics and assist data contributors when needed.
Recognizing the need for national crime statistics, the IACP formed the Committee on Uniform Crime Records in the 1920s to develop a system of uniform crime statistics. After studying state criminal codes and making an evaluation of the recordkeeping practices in use, the Committee completed a plan for crime reporting that became the foundation of the UCR Program in 1929. The plan included standardized offense definitions for seven main offense classifications known as Part I crimes to gauge fluctuations in the overall volume and rate of crime. Developers also instituted the Hierarchy Rule as the main reporting procedure for what is now known as the SRS.
The seven Part I offense classifications included the violent crimes of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault and the property crimes of burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. By congressional mandate, arson was added as the eighth Part I offense category in 1979.
In January 1930, 400 cities representing 20 million inhabitants in 43 states began participating in the UCR Program. That same year, Congress enacted Title 28, Section 534, of the United States Code authorizing the Attorney General to gather crime information. The Attorney General, in turn designated the FBI to serve as the national clearinghouse for the crime data collected. Every year since, data based on uniform classifications and procedures for reporting offenses and arrests have been obtained from the Nation's law enforcement agencies.
Since 1935, the FBI served as a data clearinghouse; organizing, collecting, and disseminating information voluntarily submitted by local, state, federal and tribal law enforcement agencies. The UCR remained the primary tool for collection and analysis of data for the next half century. Throughout the 1980s, a series of National UCR Conferences were with members from the IACP, Department of Justice, including the FBI, and newly formed Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The purpose was to determine necessary system revisions and then implement them. The result of these conferences was the release of a “Blueprint for the Future of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program” release in May 1985, detailing the necessary revisions. The report proposed splitting reported data into two separate categories, the eight ‘serious’ crimes and twenty-one less commonly reported crimes. The eight serious crimes became known as Part I index crimes. The additional twenty-one crimes are considered Part II index crimes.
In 2003, FBI UCR data were compiled from more than 16,000 agencies, representing 93 percent of the population[2] in forty six states and the District of Columbia.[3] While nationally reporting is not mandated, many states have instituted laws requiring law enforcement within those states to provide UCR data. The continued growth and improvement of the UCR is unlikely as the US Department of Justice and other UCR Conference members have decided to integrate the UCR program into the NIBRS program, created in the late 1980s based on the UCR framework.
Each month, law enforcement agencies report the number of known index crimes in their jurisdiction to the FBI. This mainly includes crimes reported to the police by the general public, but may also include crimes that police officers discover, and known through other sources. Law enforcement agencies also report the number of crime cases cleared.
For reporting purposes, criminal offenses are divided into two major groups: Part I offenses and Part II offenses.
In Part I, the UCR indexes reported incidents in two categories: violent and property crimes. Aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, and robbery are classified as violent while arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft are classified as property crimes. These are reported via the document named Return A - Monthly Return of Offenses Known to the Police. Part 1 crimes are collectively known as Index crimes, this name is used because the crimes are considered quite serious, tend to be reported more reliably than others, and are reported directly to the police and not to a separate agency (ex- IRS) that doesn't necessarily contribute to the UCR.
In Part II, the following categories are tracked: simple assault, curfew offenses and loitering, embezzlement, forgery and counterfeiting, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, drug offenses, fraud, gambling, liquor offenses, offenses against the family, prostitution, public drunkenness, runaways, sex offenses, stolen property, vandalism, vagrancy, and weapons offenses.
Two property reports are also included with the Return A. The first is the Property Stolen by Classification report. This report details the number of actual crimes of each type in the Return A and the monetary value of property stolen in conjunction with that crime. Some offenses are reported in greater detail on this report than on the Return A. For example, on the Report A, burglaries are divided into three categories: Forcible Entry, Unlawful Entry - No Force, and Attempted Forcible Entry. On the Property Stolen by Classification report, burglaries are divided into six categories based on location type and the time of the offense. Offenses are counted in residences with offense times of 6pm to 6am, 6am to 6pm and Unknown Time and Non-residences with the same three time groupings.
The second property report is the Property Stolen by Type and Value report. The monetary value of both stolen and recovered property are totaled and classified as one of eleven property types:
The FBI began recording arson rates, as part of the UCR, in 1979. This report details arsons of the following property types:
Critics of the UCR note they do not accurately reflect crime rates in that they can only list crimes reported to law enforcement agencies. Also, should a number of crimes be connected, they only list the most serious one. For instance, if someone were murdered during a car theft, they would only list murder. The UCR also fails to include child abuse in its list of violent crimes. Lastly, the list is biased in the reporting of rape. The UCR defines forcible rape as, "the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will." It does not list rapes against men, nor does it list same-sex rape.
The UCR itself warns that it reflects crime reports by police, not later adjudication by coroner, medical examiner, district attorney, grand jury, trial judge, petit jury or appellate court. For instance, manslaughter or assault later adjudicated as justifiable self-defense normally will be listed on the initial police report as a criminal act and entered in the crime statistics.
Many people feel that the racial classifications used by the UCR skew the numbers. Criminals of Middle Eastern decent, along with those of non-white/non-black Hispanic decent are all lumped into the "white" category. This erroneously inflates the number of crimes attributed to people of European descent.
The UCR does not include simple assaults in part 1 and minor assaults, verbal assaults and other such crimes, which can account for between 50% and 90% of violent crimes in other countries, are not recorded.
In many instances, police agencies can downgrade a burglary to a vandalism if the suspect damages a door or window to gain entry, however entry wasn't gained.