Uniform_Crime_Report_Program

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is a voluntary city, county, state, tribal and federal law enforcement program that provides a nationwide view of crime based on the submission of statistics by law enforcement agencies throughout the country. This Program collects offense information for murder and no negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. These are Part I offenses and are serious crime by natural and/or volume. The intent of this paper is using UCR to compare one crime on two cities. The crime that will be used to compare is burglary; moreover, the two cities are Los Angles and Long Beach. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program defines burglary as the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft. To classify an offense as a burglary, the use of force to gain entry need to have occurred. The Program has three sub-classifications for burglary: forcible entry, unlawful entry where no force is used, and attempted forcible entry. The UCR definition of structure includes, for example, apartment, barn, house trailer or houseboat when used as a permanent dwelling, office, railroad car (but not automobile), stable, and vessel (ship) (2005). According to an overview on the crime of burglary in the nation that is made by the FBI, in 2005, law enforcement agencies reported an estimated 2,154,126 burglary offenses and it has increased 0.5% compare to last year. Burglary accounted for 21.1% of the estimated number of property crimes committed in 2005. The average dollar loss per burglary offense in 2005 was $1,725. Furthermore, of all burglary offenses, 65.8% were of residential structure; and 62.4% of residential burglaries occurred during the day, between 6a.m to 6 p.m. In addition, among burglaries of nonresidential structures when time of occurrence was known, 58.0% occurred at night. First, the two cities have major different in population. This might affect the result within the crime report to the FBI. According to the UCR, the population of Los Angles City in 2006 is 3,871,077; and the population of Long Beach city is 479,729. In the year of 2005, City of Los Angles has reported 22,592 cases of burglary; and City of Long Beach has reported 2,955 cases of burglary. This reported included night, day, resident structure, and nonresident structure burglary. Due to the big different in population, the number of crime report in both cities have major different. If one compares the number of burglary report to the population on each city, then they might think that the number is high. However, if one compares the data from this year to last year, the number of burglary crime has been down in both cities. According to the FBI, in 2004, City of Los Angeles reported 23,182 cases of burglary, and in 2005, the cases have been drop down to 22,592. Over one year, burglary rate difference between the year of 2004 and 2005 in the City of Los Angeles is 590. On the other hand, City of Long Beach in 2004 reported 3,245 cases of burglary and in 2005 are 2,955 cases. The rate differences over one year is 290. The factors that might explain the difference in burglary rate are law enforcement and communities. Everyone knows that gang is the problem within the communities, and most of the crime committed by gang members. However, according to the Justice Policy Institute, gangs do not plague all communities equally; large cities and suburban counties accounted for approximately 85 percent of the estimated number of gang member in 2004. Some cities, like Los Angeles, which continue to experience a high level of gang activity, still witness a decrease in violent crime and any other known crime in 2006. This high result happens because of the law enforcement. For example, the LAPD has hired more personnel in order to fight back crime and gang member. They constantly develop more training for the officer to fight back gang activities and other crime. Due to their effort, crime within Los Angeles has decreased as it is in the Uniform Crime Report Program by the FBI. Furthermore, the communities have to work closely with the police department to fight back crimes and gang activities. With the help of the communities, law enforcement can effective fight back crimes within that community. This is how crimes rates within those two cities are lower than last year. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of more than 17,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention. The two cities, Los Angeles and Long Beach, have different crime rate in their statistic; however, they have one thing in common, which is their crime rate in general is lower than last year, and specifically crime of burglary. Reference FBI, (2005). Uniform Crime Report: Burglary. Retrieved September 16, 2007, from FBI: Crime in the United State 2005 Web site: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/property_crime/burglary.html Justice Policy Institute, (2007). Response to 2006 FBI Uniform Crime Report . Retrieved September 16, 2007, from Justice Policy Institute Web site: http://www.justicepolicy.org/content.php'hmID=1811&smID=1588&ssmID=51