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Sentencing

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Crime Statistic Sources
The United States measures crime through two major statistical sources, the Federal Bureau of Investigations Uniform Crime Report/National Incident-Based Reporting System and the National Victimization Survey. Data from the two sources, although collected differently, show an array of crime data in the United States and is a method to monitor criminal activity. They both have positive and negative attributes that have influenced different aspects of society. It is important to remember that statistical aggregates of reporting crime, whatever the source, does not reveal the lost lives, human suffering, lessened productivity, and reduces quality of life that crime causes (Schmallager, 2011). The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is the crime statistics of more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies (Schmallager, 2011). Congress created this program in 1930 and designated the FBI to implement the program (Schmallager, 2011). The programs primary objective is to generate a reliable set of criminal statistics for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management; however, its data have over the years become on of the country’s leading social indicators (national atlas, 2003). Citizens use these reports to see fluctuations in crime levels and law enforcement uses it for planning and crime prevention programs. Eight Part I offenses are included in the UCR Reports, also known as the Crime Index. The violent crimes are murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravates assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Clearance rates are also included in the report. Clearance rates are crimes that have been solved, judged primarily on arrest of the offender. Murder has been the highest clearance so far (national atlas, 2003). The FBI initiates a new crime collection agency in 1988 (Schmallager, 2011). The National

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