Collection of Data and Analysis Methods

Name
Instructor’s Name
Course
Date
Uniform Crime Report
Uniform Crime Report is a program that compiles the official data from different criminal activities of the USA. It is collected by the FBI to help in the analysis of the crime trend in the country, therefore enable ease in the fighting criminal activities in the country (Steffensmeier 249). This stored information is used by students of criminal justice, the media and the general public who wishes to seek information on the trends of crimes in the country.
There are several ways in which UCR is used today. Some of such uses include fighting the criminal activities by setting policies that help to limit the loopholes that exist in the prevention of crime based on the previous reports by the UCR. It also enables students of criminal justice direction to understand the nature of illegal activities, therefore, giving them a highlight on how to investigate them based on the previous experiences of the crime by the FBI. The report also enables law enforcement to understand the crime rate in the country, therefore, designing how to fight them effectively.
Despite the large criminal reports by the FBI in the UCR index, some limitations still exist in it. One of it is that it only reflects the crime report by the police and should not be used for later adjudication. In this case, the information that is collected cannot be used as a means of mediating justice in the court of law. It is also not a requirement in all states for municipalities; therefore, it does not make vital statistics to them.

Thus, the use of UCR is only an important document kept by the FBI for future references.
Work Cited
Steffensmeier, Darrell, et al. “Reassessing trends in black violent crime, 1980–2008: Sorting out the “Hispanic effect” in Uniform Crime Reports arrests, National Crime Victimization Survey offender estimates, and US prisoner counts.” Criminology 49.1 (2011): 197-251.