First, review the categories of Victims, Known Offenders, Victim-to-Offender Relationships and Arrestees found in the online FBI press release “FBI Releases 2019 NIBRS Crime Data“
In your assignment, answer the following questions about the NIBRS Crime Data:
1. Is there anything about the percentages of Known Victims and Arrestees that surprised you? If so, what? Is this the picture of victimization and offender status that you commonly see in the media? Give some examples of what you do see.
2. As you can see in the Victim-to-Offender relationships section, only 25% of the victims were strangers to the suspects. If 75% of the victims and suspects know each other, what does that tell us about what we should be doing with our crime prevention efforts?
Second, go to the FBI’s online Crime Data Explorer.
You will see a map on Crime Data Explorer page. Select any state on the map and browse the page that you land on. Go through the drop-down boxes and see what information is available to you. Based on what you see on this page, include also in this week’s assignment your answers to the following questions;
3. Does the Crime Data Explorer include crime information that is of interest to you? If so, why? If not, what do you think should be included?
4. At the top of the Crime Data Explorer page, you will see a statement about how many law enforcement agencies reported information to the FBI. There may be some agencies that did not report to the FBI. What would be a reason why an agency would not report?
5. Discuss two things that you found to be interesting or informative about the crime data, or victim/offender data in the various graphs and drop-down menus on the Crime Data Explorer site. Explain if this data helps you see the overall crime picture in this area and what it tells you about crime reduction efforts should be like in the future.
