What is the FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR)?

The UCR Program is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort in which nearly 18,000 city, college and university, state, county, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies have voluntarily reported data on the crimes brought to their attention.  The FBI has administered the UCR Program since 1930 and continues to this day to monitor and assess the type and nature of crime in the United States. While the UCR program’s primary goal is to generate dependable information to be used in law enforcement administration, management and operation, over the years its data has become one of America’s leading social indicators. Criminologists, legislators, sociologists, municipal planners, the media, and many other students of criminal justice use the UCR data for varied planning and research purposes. Law enforcement agencies active in the UCR Program covered more than 295 million United States inhabitants in in 2009, 96.3% of the total population. This coverage amounted to 97.1% of the population in Metropolitan Statistical Areas, 90.9% of the populations of cities outside metropolitan areas, and 93.0% of the populations of non-metropolitan counties.

UCR advisory groups

The vital links between the FBI and local law enforcement agencies in the oversight of the UCR Program are provided by the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). The IACP represents the many thousands of police departments nationwide, and the NSA serves sheriffs throughout the nation.  Both committees encourage agencies to participate fully in the UCR program, and also serve in advisory capacities regarding the UCR Program’s operation.

A Data Providers’ Advisory Policy Board was established in 1988, providing input for all UCR matters. The Board was combined with the National Crime Information Center Advisory Policy Board in 1993 to form the Advisory Policy Board (APB), a single board which addresses all the issues regarding the criminal justice information services of the FBI. The current APB ensures continued emphasis on UCR-related matters. In addition, the Association of State UCR Programs (ASUCRP) focuses on UCR issues within particular state law enforcement associations, all while promoting interest in the UCR Program. Together, these organizations foster responsible and widespread usage of the uniform crime statistics while lending needed assistance to data contributors.

UCR Historical background

Recognizing the need for a source of national crime statistics, the Committee on Uniform Crime Records was formed by the IACP in the 1920s in order to develop a uniform crime statistic system. After studying contemporary state criminal codes and evaluating recordkeeping practices then in use, the Committee completed the initial plan for crime reporting which eventually became the UCR Program’s foundation in 1929. Included in the plan were standardized offense definitions for seven main offense classifications--known as “Part I" crimes—in order to gauge fluctuations in the overall rate and volume of crime. Developers also instituted the Hierarchy Rule, the main reporting procedure for what came to be known as the UCR Program’s Summary Reporting System.

There were originally seven classifications of Part I offenses, including such property crimes as burglary, motor vehicle theft, and larceny-theft,  and the violent crimes were murder and non-negligent manslaughter, robbery, forcible rape, and aggravated assault. In 1979, Arson was added as the eighth Part I offense category by congressional mandate

400 cities representing nearly 20 million inhabitants in 43 out of the 48 states started participating in the UCR Program in January 1930. In that same year, Title 28, Section 534 of the United States Code was enacted by Congress, which authorized the Attorney General to gather information about crime. In turn, the Attorney General designated the FBI to be the national clearinghouse for all the crime data collected. Each year since, the data based on uniform classifications and procedures for reporting arrests and offense have been obtained from America’s law enforcement agencies.

In the 1980s, the FBI recognized a need to update the UCR and its complete support to a restructuring, devising a comprehensive, three-phase redesign effort. The first two phases were guided by input from representatives of the NSA, the IACP, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), and the FBI.   This culminated with the 1985 release of a comprehensive report called the Blueprint for the Future of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (Blueprint). It outlined three specific areas of enhancement to assist the UCR in meeting future informational needs--first, the assorted agencies would use an incident-based system; second, the UCR would collect data on two different levels of participation (limited and full); and third and final, a quality assurance program would be introduced.