Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:23:55.635Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Creation of the Uniform Crime Report

The Role of Social Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Lawrence Rosen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The introduction of the Uniform Crime Reporting system (UCR) in 1930 remains one of the most important events in the history of criminal statistics in the United States. Based on local police reports, it is the oldest extant national crime data system in the United States, with the possible exception of prison statistics. It continues to be a vitally important data system because of its extensive use by scholars, social critics, governmental organizations and the media, and as such it has made a major contribution to our understanding of crime in the United States in the last half century. The UCR has also had its share of controversy, involving not only scientific issues of validity and reliability, but the possibility of covert agendas on the part of the police and the FBI to foster an image of effective law enforcement. Despite its importance and controversial nature there is no single objective and definitive written history documenting the beginnings of the UCR. That which exists tends to be brief and superficial, and at times even ideologically biased (Leonard 1954; Maltz 1977; Sherman et al. 1982; Thompson 1968; U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation 1940).

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , Summer 1995 , pp. 215 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1995 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, M. (1988) The American Census: A Social History. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
American Prison Association (1916) “Report on the committee on statistics of crime.” Proceedings of the American Prison Association: 381–92.Google Scholar
Blumer, M. and Blumer, J. (1981) “Philanthropy and social science in the 1920s: Beardsly Ruml and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, 1922–29.” Minerva 19: 347–407.Google Scholar
Boies, H. (1972 [1893]) Prisoners and Paupers. Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press.Google Scholar
The Cleveland Foundation (1922) Criminal Justice in Cleveland. Cleveland: The Cleveland Foundation.Google Scholar
Cohen, P. (1982) A Calculating People: The Spread of Numeracy in Early America. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Commons, J. R. (1904) “Racial composition of the American people: City life, crime and poverty.” The Chautauguan 39:115–24.Google Scholar
Cross, W. T. (1917) “Statistics of crime: Report of the Committee of the American Prison Association.” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 8:16–26.Google Scholar
Davis, R. C. (1972) “The beginnings of American social research.” in Daniels, G. H. (ed.) Nineteenth Century American Science. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, R. C. (1990) “Cleveland Criminal Justice Survey 1920.” The American Society of Criminology Meetings, Baltimore, MD (Unpublished paper).Google Scholar
Deakin, T. J. (1988) Police Professionalism: The Renaissance of American Law Enforcement. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Dunham, L. B. Papers. Rockefeller Foundation Archives.Google Scholar
Ellwood, C. (1910) “Has crime increased in the United States since 1880?” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 1: 378–85.Google Scholar
Falkner, R. P. (1897) “Crime and the Census.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 9: 42–69.Google Scholar
Fosdick, R. B. (1920) American Police Systems. New York: The Century Co.Google Scholar
Goebel, J. (1913) “The prevalence of crime in the United States and its extent compared to leading European states.” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 3: 754–69.Google Scholar
Grossman, D. (1982) “Philanthropy and social science research: The Rockefeller Foundation and economics” Minerva 20: 59–82.Google Scholar
Harrison, L. V. Papers. Rockefeller Foundation Archives.Google Scholar
Hart, H. H. (1896) “Immigration and crime.” American Journal of Sociology 2: 369–77.Google Scholar
Hewes, F. W. (1896) “Delinquent, defective and dependent classes in the United States.” The Outlook 53: 428–30.Google Scholar
Hill, J. A. (1922) “Co-operation between state and municipal bureaus and the federal census bureau in the compilation of criminal statistics.” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 12: 529–33.Google Scholar
Hinkle, R. C. and Hinkle, G. (1954) The Development of Modern Sociology. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Industrial Commission (1902) Volume 15: Report on Immigration. Washington, D.C.: The Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) (1971) Proceedings of the Annual Conventions of the IACP, 1926–1930 (Vol. 5.). New York: Arno Press.Google Scholar
Karl, B. (1974) Charles E. Merriam and the Study of Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Karl, B. and Katz, S. N. (1981) “The American private philanthropic foundation and the public sphere.” Minerva 19: 251–57.Google Scholar
Koren, J. (1910) “Report on the Committee on Statistics and Crime.” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 4: 417–37.Google Scholar
Koren, J. (1915) “Criminal statistics: Report of Committee No. 3 of the institute.” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 5: 653–59.Google Scholar
Leonard, A. E. (1954) “Crime reporting as a police management tool.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 291:127–34.Google Scholar
Lyons, M. L. (1969) The Uneasy Partnership: Social Science and the Federal Government in the Twentieth Century. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Manicas, P. T. (1988) A History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences. New York: Black-well.Google Scholar
Moley, R. (1928) “The collection of criminal statistics in the United States.” Michigan Law Review 26: 747–62.Google Scholar
Maltz, M. (1977) “Crime statistics: A historical perspective.” Crime and Delinquency 23: 32–50.Google Scholar
Mayo-Smith, R. (1893) “Statistical data for the study of the assimilation of races and nationalities in the United States.” Publications of the American Association of the American Statistical Association 3: 429–49.Google Scholar
Merriam, C. E. Papers. Rockefeller Foundation Archives.Google Scholar
Morrison, W. (1897) “The interpretation of criminal statistics.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 60:1–21.Google Scholar
National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (1931) Report on Criminal Statistics. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
National Crime Commission (1927) “Criminal statistics and identification of criminals.” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 18: 8–13.Google Scholar
National Crime Commission (1928) “Criminal statistics and identification of criminals.” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 19: 36–48.Google Scholar
Pickard, J. L. (1885) “Why crime is increasing.” North American Review 140: 456–63.Google Scholar
Pollock, H. M. (1919) “Better statistics in criminology.” Proceedings of the Kansas Conference of Social Work: 130–33.Google Scholar
Robinson, L. N. (1911) History and Organization of Criminal Statistics in the United States. New York: H. Mifflin.Google Scholar
Robinson, L. N. (1920) “The improvement of criminal statistics in the United States.” Quarterly Publication of the American Statistical Association 17:157–63.Google Scholar
Rosen, L. (1990) “Origins of national criminal statistics in the United States.” The meetings of the American Criminological Society, Baltimore, MD.Google Scholar
Rosen, L. (1991) “History of national criminal statistics in the United States: 1880–1930.“ The meetings of the Social Science History Association, New Orleans, LA.Google Scholar
Ross, D. (1984) “American social science and the idea of progress,” in Haskell, T. L. (ed.). The Authority of Experts. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press: 157–75.Google Scholar
Ross, D. (1991) The Origins of American Social Science. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Russell, Archibald Sir (1839) Principals of Statistical Inquiry. New York: D. Appelton and Co.Google Scholar
Rutledge, W. P. (1928) “Progress report of the Committee on Uniform Crime Records.” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 19: 378–82.Google Scholar
Sellin, T. (1950) “The uniform criminal statistics act.” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 40: 679–700.Google Scholar
Smith, B. (1940) Police Systems in the United States. New York: Harper and Brothers.Google Scholar
SSRC Advisory Committee on Crime Papers. Rockefeller Foundation Archives.Google Scholar
Sutherland, E. (1924) Criminology. Philadelphia: J.P. Lippincott and Co.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. L. (1968) “Uniform Crime Reporting: Historical IACP landmark.” Police Chief 35(2):22–34.Google Scholar
Trenor, J. D. (1904) “Proposals affecting immigration.” Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 24: 223–36.Google Scholar
Sherman, J. S., Christensen, J. and Henderson, J. (1982) “Reorganized crime: The creation of the Uniform Crime Reports.” Research in Law, Deviance and Social Control 4: 3–52.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1888. Report on the Defective, Dependent and Delinquent Classes of the Population of the United States at the Tenth Census, 1880. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (1940) Ten years of Uniform Crime Reporting. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Walker, S. (1977) A Critical History of Police Reform. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Warner, S. B. (1922) “Towards a system of criminal records and statistics.” Proceedings of the Annual Congress of the American Prison Association: 250–54.Google Scholar
Warner, S. B. (1931) “Crimes known to the police: An index of crimes?” Harvard Law Review 45: 307–34.Google Scholar
Zolbe, P. A. (Sept. 1980) “The Uniform Crime Reporting program: 50 years of progress.” FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin 49: 2–7.Google Scholar