Introduction
The relationship between race, ethnicity and crime rates in America has always elicited public controversy for a long time. The discussion has been anchored on ‘perceived’ mistreatment of racial minorities especially the blacks and Hispanics. For example, on March 11 2005, a black American rape suspect named Brian Nichols went into a killing spree, shooting a judge, a court reporter, and a deputy (Walker et al., 2005).
To justify his actions, he cited reacting against a racially biased legal system. This has been the sentiments of many Black Americans and Hispanics with a national research in 2003 indicating only 28% of the Black Americans reporting that whites and blacks receive equal treatment at the hands of the justice system. They believe with a low population of only 13% and a high incarceration rate of 27% represents in itself some form of bias in the justice system.
Police on the other hand think the high crime rates of Blacks and Hispanics only reflects the differences in the crime rates and not the biased justice system. These among other reasons have led to the need for better convincing way(s) to justify these allegations. Among the available centers’ for crime data are the National Criminal Victimization Survey (NCVS), and the Uniform Crime Report (UCR).
Uniform Crime Report, National criminal Victimization Survey and Crime Rates
The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) was established in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police for documenting crime statistics. Through UCR, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) gathers and analyzes recently reported crimes submitted by both the state agencies and local authorities. After the signing of the ‘Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990’ by the American president it became a law requiring the Attorney General to establish and collect data concerning crimes. UCR has since then been tasked to collect data about crimes that manifest elements of prejudice based on race, religion, and ethnicity.
The center has since then moved from a ‘tally’ system centre to a unit record system involved in publishing annual crime statistics. It collects comprehensive data on the victims, offenders, and the circumstances of crime. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s UCR program involves in developing procedures for, and managing the implementations of the collection of hate crime data. They conduct on a sampling basis, a nation wide analysis of suspected bias charges.
The cases are tracked and then comprehensive data reports about the offences are reported. The second approach incorporated in the established nation wide UCR program includes adding a new data element to provide capability for flagging bias-motivated criminal charges. The system allows entry criminal type, type of bias, and the offenders’ race which are then submitted on Quarterly basis to URC centre for analysis. They use the supplied information to calculate the crime rate, violent crime rate, and crime per square mile.
The National criminal Victimization Survey (NCVS) initially the National Crime Survey (NCS) has been collecting data on family households since 1973. It collects data using six month reference period as this allows collection of more accurate information at manageable costs. The collected data include those on assault, burglary, rape and robbery. It analyzes the nature of the crimes including those that were unreported. Data collection is done twice a year by use of a national survey targeting close to 49000 sampled households. The data are usually useful in calculating crime rates and determining changes in crime rates from year to year.
The data gathered comprise that of age, race, gender, and income of the offender which allow analysis of crime by various racial groups. The critiques of NCVS have pointed on its inability to justify the reliability of the data collected. The body cannot adequately distinguish between true victimizations and the severity of the offences. Again its bias towards urban set ups as most of the studies is done at urban areas missing out on the insights of the suburban and rural regions seen as a limitation. Consequently, these findings cannot be generalized to the American society. The Census Bureau collects data on race in accordance with the guidelines outlined by the U.S. office of management and budget. It includes information on ethnicity, crime rates and subpopulations.
Conclusion
The paper has identified that even though the available literature suggests that the American justice system treats criminals of different races equally, the high percentages of arrests and incarcerations of Blacks and Hispanics leave majority thinking they are targeted by police more than their white counterparts. Whether this is a real picture of crime rates among the various sub groups remains a mystery as the crime statistics itself has failed to distinguish between Hispanics and whites and hence documenting crime rates as per race is still confusing.
Reference
Walker, S. Cassia, S. & Miriam, D. (2005). The Color of Justice, Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America (3rd eds). Web.