Crime measurements are critical indicators for accepting or declining potential legislations, and these statistics help to build the correct course of action in the form of strategy among law enforcement agencies. There are three main ways to measure the overall crime rate in a particular region. Firstly, the crime data can be collected by using Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), which is a national standard to record and report all crime incidents. Secondly, the crime level can be measured through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which was developed by the FBI to acquire more accurate data on the subject (Maltz & Rice, 2015). Thirdly, crime rates can be obtained with the help of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which uses victims and reports as the main source of information. All incoming reports are categorized according to the type of crime and the severity of the incident. UCR is most likely to be the most accurate and representative on a national scale, because some states, such as Hawaii, are not included in NIBRS (“Hawaii,” 2018). Therefore, it is important to have a universal crime data analysis system, which does not leave blind spots.
In the case of Hawaii, the level of violent crime rates is generally lower than the national statistics. For example, all violent crime rates between 2008 and 2018 for the United States is around 400 per 100000 people, whereas the number for the region is equal to 250 per 100000 (“Hawaii,” 2018). However, non-violent crime rates for Hawaii and the United States are similar and comparable, which was surprising. I always considered my hometown, Honolulu, to be relatively peaceful, but thefts are as common as in the mainland. The level of violent crimes was not surprising for me, because I always knew that the local people are generally less hostile and police are strong.
References
Hawaii. (2018). Web.
Maltz, M. D., & Rice, S. K. (2015). Envisioning Criminology. Springer.