Michael Shofi

Prof. Dupont
Critical Criminology
5 November 2018
Why are people unlikely to report crime? That’s was my biggest question while reading
“The Measurement of Crime.” It has been discussed that certain crimes are less likely to be
reported because of the intimacy and perceived embarrassment of them (rape), but as for crimes
like aggravated assault, is it possible that America’s “no snitching” policy is giving us faulty
crime rates?
The UCR does do a “commendable job of measuring the crime rate” (The
Measurement…), but that is literally all that it can do. Since police stations around America are
reporting these crimes, all we get a sense for is the amount law enforcement is paying attention
to these crimes. What else is it good for? Just as normal citizens who have probably broken the
law their fair share of times, we have an idea as to how many crimes must not be reported! Also,
the “hierarchy rule” is something I simply don’t understand. More than often, someone
committing a serious crime will be going all-out, and committing a bunch of other crimes while
they’re at it. Someone who steals a vehicle is probably going to violate the speed limit (possibly
to the point of attempted manslaughter). The criminal is also likely to be under the influence of
drugs and/or alcohol, which brings on an entire new set of threats and charges. To not include
every crime in the UCR is very problematic to me.
The article also mentions the issue of what is included in Part One Crimes. There is no
argument that most of those crimes belong where they are (murder, rape, arson), but how are
non-violent/endangering crimes like larceny Part One Crimes, while child endangerment does
not make the cut? Child endangerment has the possibility of harming a child with possible intent!
Larceny is non-violent robbery, so there is no harm except for the taking of what is not theirs.
UCR is not an effective way of measuring crime… at least not the UCR alone.
Crime in America is so much more complex than what is being reported by police
stations to the FBI. Law enforcement should be seeking out crime that is not necessarily always
reported like white collar crime. That is truly important data to report. How many corporations
have seriously violated laws so I can choose different ones to support? How many corporations
have chosen actions resulting in the deaths of innocent people? In my opinion, that is much
more important than the amount of larceny occurring in the Northeast.
This is a bit of a catch-22, though because anonymous surveys have historically never
been accurate. We can’t just tack on these surveys to the uniform crime reports and rely on that
either. In my opinion, changes have to be made to the UCR so that the weak are not thrown
under the bus while the powerful get off scot-free.