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| A police officer interviews witnesses near the scene of a dispute among deer hunters over a tree stand in northwestern Wisconsin. The argument erupted into a series of shootings that left 5 people dead and 3 injured on November 21, 2004. Crime Dominates Airwaves WASHINGTON, DC—The Center for Media and Public Affairs reported that despite the worldwide acts of terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, crime continued to be among the top stories in the news and that on television, 78 percent of all stories examining rural life looked at crime.¹ Moreover, for the decade of the 1990s, the center reported that crime fully dominated the television news agenda. However, actual crime rates have been steadily falling. In September 2004, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that rates of serious crime have been declining for nearly a decade, while overall violent victimization and property crime rates in 2003 were at their lowest levels in 30 years.² Why would news coverage of crime be up when actual crime rates are down? Crime Stories in the News Based on the number of stories appearing on ABC, CBS, and NBC evening newscasts. Source: Center for Media and Public Affairs. The difference between public perceptions and actual crime statistics raises a number of questions. What are the sources of information about the extent of crime in the United States? How are crime data collected, and are the statistics accurate? What is a crime rate, and how does one really know if crime is declining or increasing? As a first step toward answering these questions, this chapter describes the major sources of information about the magnitude and trends of crime. It explains how the information is compiled, what it includes, how it might best be interpreted, and how it has been misused. The shortcomings and the usefulness of official crime statistics are also discussed. The final section looks at alternate and supplementary sources of crime data. |