Crime and Incarceration rates

[Max Sawicky]

DoJ has two data sets.  One is a scientific survey
of persons, and the second is based on police reports.
The latter would obviously have all kinds of very
elementary, serious problems, except perhaps in
the case of murder where most crimes end up being
reported because there are bodies that have to be
disposed of.

The survey of persons would be as good as any survey
on the entire range of criminal offenses, which is to
say imperfect but useful.

On the whole the data in this area is thin.

mbs

 
> I believe that the justice department's major 
> cross-sectional survey of
> crime rates, but the Bureau of Justice Statistics' 
> flagship survey, the
> National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), is done 
> through statistical
> sampling rather than through police reports. Rates of 
> reporting (or
> conviction) thus aren't really germane to the question.