The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of more than 17,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention.
Technology has expanded the FBI's information resources. Since 1995 the FBI has published its three annual UCR series to the Internet to reduce its reliance on printed copy: Crime in the United States, Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, and Hate Crime Statistics. In 2006 the FBI discontinued the printed versions of these publications altogether to focus its efforts on retooling the electronic versions to be more useful. Future plans include providing database-driven presentations of Summary and NIBRS data, as well as more special studies using NIBRS data.
To ensure data is uniformly reported, the FBI provides contributing law enforcement agencies with a handbook that explains how to classify and score offenses and provides uniform crime offense definitions. Acknowledging that offense definitions may vary from state to state, the FBI cautions agencies to report offenses not according to local or state statutes but according to those guidelines provided in the handbook. Most agencies make a good faith effort to comply with established guidelines.
Finally, in a given year, although nearly 17,000 agencies contribute data to the FBI; because of computer problems, changes in record management systems, personnel shortages or a number of other reasons, some agencies cannot provide data for publication. The FBI appreciates the conscientious efforts made by law enforcement personnel throughout the nation to report accurate and reliable crime data. Their efforts make it possible for the FBI to provide assessments of the nature and type of crime in the United States.
The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program was conceived in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to meet a need for reliable, uniform crime statistics for the nation. In 1930, the FBI was tasked with collecting, publishing, and archiving those statistics..
Since 1930, the FBI has administered the UCR Program and continued to assess and monitor the nature and type of crime in the Nation. The Program's primary objective is to generate reliable information for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management; however, its data have over the years become one of the country's leading social indicators. Criminologists, sociologists, legislators, municipal planners, the media, and other students of criminal justice use the data for varied research and planning purposes.
