04/07/16 ************************************************************** * FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION'S UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS * ************************************************************** NICAR keeps data from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports going back to 1980. There are six main tables per year. The folder you downloaded from NICAR will have the following files: 1) RETAXX (XX = the year) Return-A, by year: The base table, which includes crime totals for major felonies as well as lesser crimes by police district, by month. 2) RETASXX Return-A Supplement, by year: Includes the dollar values of the crimes in Return A. 3) SHR80_XX Supplemental Homicide Report, 1980-latest available: More detailed information on homicides, including demographic information about the victim, the offender, and the weapon used. 4) POLICEXX Police, by year: Detailed information on law enforcement agencies, including the sex of uniformed and civilian personnel, and the number of injured and killed officers. 5) ARSONXX Arson, by year: More detailed information on arsons, including summary totals by police district. 6) ASRXX Age, Sex, Race (also called Arrests), by year: Demographics of people arrested for all major crimes, by police district. Along with the data, you should also have received the following documentation. --FBI record layouts, including field descriptions and codes, (one Word document for each of the tables) --NICAR record layouts in ASCII text form -- a concise list of fields in each table --The FBI handbook for law enforcement agencies in reporting UCR data --A table, called LINK.csv, that allows a user to match police agencies with geographic codes, useful in mapping, accompanied by a PDF document (use the ORI code in each of the tables to join with LINK.ORI7) --NICAR-created spreadsheets with code definitions (found in the FBI word files for each table) The FBI has abundant additional information on their site: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr The data have received a minimum of processing to help ensure integrity. NICAR performed a variety of checks to confirm that no errors were introduced in processing the data; however, this does not mean that the data are error-free. For example, the 1998 Return-A Supplement had 10,000 murders for Randolph, MASS in December. Such entries obviously suggest the need for further inquiry, and as with any data set, NICAR recommends careful scrutiny. Be sure to contact the FBI at the number below to confirm your results. Please note that the UCR is a voluntary reporting system, so some states or possessions may not be fully represented, or may not be represented at all. Only agencies with uniformed officials who are sworn with the power of arrest may report, which means that, in addition to city, county and state police agencies, organizations such as hospitals and universities may be represented. However, military installations are not included. Some fields may have "0" in fields that contain counts, even though the agency did not report. In other cases, agencies report 0s. If other sections of the record are blank (no data), then most likely that agency did not report. (Numeric fields often default to 0 when there is no data). Also, please note that some of the tables do not have complete reports for certain states and agencies. The FBI says the main table is the Return-A. This table should have the most complete data for any particular agency. Other tables will have at most the same information contained in Return-A but could have fewer reports. For example, some police departments might report Return-A information to the FBI but not include the Return-A Supplement or the homicide data. When figuring out total offenses for a particular agency, you should use the Return-A table. This is especially true for Arson, Supplemental Homicide, and the Age, Sex and Race arrest files. Examples: In 2003, no arrests are reported in the following states in the Age, Sex and Race data: DEL, FLA, IDAHO, IOWA, KANS, S C, TENN, VA, VT and W VA; DC reports just 32 arrests in 2005. In 2011, Florida reported no arrests. SHR Florida did not report to the SHR from 1997 to 2011. New York did not report from 2000 to 2007. The District of Columbia did not report to the SHR in 1996, or 1998-2008. The U.S. territories are also not included, except for the Virgin Islands which began reporting in 2010. These are examples, not an exhaustive inventory of problems or missing states. Notes on the 2011 data: Missing from the SHR are entries for American Samoa (state code: 54), Canal Zone (52), Guam (55), Ruerto Rico (53). American Samoa is missing from Arson, Police It is better ot use the state code, rather than the state name to query the SHR, because some states are entered with spaces, such as N H, N C instead of NH or NC. From the FBI website: "In December 2011, the UCR Program changed its SRS definition of rape: 'Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.' The effect of this definition change will not be seen in reported crime data until after January 2013. Data reported from prior years will not be revised." The definition of Forcible rape is as follows: "The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. Rapes by force and attempts or assaults to rape, regardless of the age of the victim, are included. Statutory offenses (no force used—victim under age of consent) are excluded." Because of the reporting discrepancies, NICAR recommends using extreme caution when trying to compare state totals for any of the six tables. The FBI says an agency might not be included in some of the tables of the UCR because they 1) didn’t report , 2) missed the reporting deadline, or 3) reported the data in the wrong format. Please also refer to the paper documentation that was included with your order for a more complete discussion on the reporting problems for some states. If you have specific questions about certain states, call the FBI Programs Support Section at 304-625-4995. You can download a series of PDFs and Excel files from recent UCR reports from this address: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm. One word of caution: The numbers from the Web will not match to the database because the FBI estimates and extrapolates some of the state numbers for those states that have incomplete reporting. ********************************* STORIES FROM THE RESOURCE CENTER ********************************* The IRE RESOURCE CENTER offers numerous examples of investigative reporting using crime statistics from a variety of sources. To order copies one or more of following stories call the IRE RESOURCE CENTER at 573-882-3364 and give them the FILE NUMBER. You can search for additional stories here: www.ire.org/resourcecenter. FILE NUMBER 24870 The Scripps Howard News Service has compiled an extensive database of homicide victims in the U.S., revealing records of more than 15,000 murders that were "never reporter to the FBI." As a result of the series, several police departments "promised reform," and new investigations into old murders were launched. FILE NUMBER 24633 "Dallas had the highest reported crime rate among cities with more than 1 million people". Many people were worried with distinction, so the police came up with a better system to record and report these statistics. Now that Dallas isn’t known to have the highest reported crime rate, it has come to attention that the rates being presented to the public are creating “an artificial image of crime in Dallas” FILE NUMBER 21646 The St. Louis Post-Dispatch looks at data errors that allowed the city’s police chief to take credit for an 18 percent drop in the crime rate, then try to quietly revise the department’s crime stats after the mistakes were discovered. FILE NUMBER 21732 The Citizen in Tucson, Ariz., used FBI UCR data in a report that showed most crimes occurred in north Tucson, despite stereotypes that depicted the predominantly Hispanic south side as the most dangerous area. The north side’s concentration of violent crimes was linked to poverty, prostitution, drug dealing and strip clubs. FILE NUMBER: 14926 Washington Post series reveals that D.C. police officers in the 1990s have shot and killed more people per resident than any other large American city police force. Internal police files and court records revealed a pattern of reckless gunplay by officers with inadequate training and little oversight. FILE NUMBER: 16389 The Inquirer found the Philadelphia Police Department's sex-crimes unit suppressed the citywide rape count and doctored its crime reports from the early 1980s until 1998, leading to promising leads that went unpursued and rapists striking again... "With thousands of incidents excluded from the official count, the city's crime statistics were meaningless - worse, misleading. The rape squad's much-touted clearance rate was a hoax...." The Resource Center also offers tipsheets that members can view and download as .PDFs at no cost. Examples from the crime collection: TIPSHEET NUMBER: 873 This tipsheet, written by Jo Craven McGinty, now with The New York Times, consists of a review of the Washington Post's investigative series "Deadly Force" by the Columbia Journalism Review.