1110-0005_ Part B

1110-0005_ PART B.doc

Age, Sex, and Race of Persons Arrested 18 Years of Age and Over; Age, Sex, and Race of Persons Arrested Under 18 Years of Age

OMB: 1110-0005

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PART B. Statistical Methods

The potential respondent universe of the forms Age, Sex, and Race of Persons Arrested Under 18 years of Age; and Age, Sex and Race of Persons Arrested 18 Years of Age and Over (ASR) forms includes respondents from United States (U.S.) law enforcement agencies who voluntarily report ASR crimes to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. Approximately 18,000 law enforcement agencies participate in the FBI UCR Program, and of those, approximately 12,200 report ASR data. The law enforcement agencies consist of local, county, state, tribal and federal agencies that correlate to all population group sizes and have many diverse attributes. Possible attributes known of reporting and nonreporting agencies include: a mix of population density and degrees of urbanization; various compositions of population particularly youth concentration; population mobility with respect to residents’ mobility, commuting patterns, and transient factors; different economic conditions including median income, poverty level, and job availability; areas with different modes of transportation and highway systems; different cultural factors and educational, recreational, and religious characteristics; family conditions with respect to divorce and family cohesiveness; climate; effective strength of law enforcement; policies of other components of the criminal justice system; citizens’ attitudes toward crime; and crime reporting practices of the citizenry.

Based on historical reporting trends, similar response rates are expected in future ASR collections, however, the FBI UCR Program anticipates an increase in participation with the use of updated training modules, reference materials, and by active liaison with national and federal law enforcement agencies to encourage participation in the UCR ASR data collection.

ASR data are collected/received from state UCR Program participants on a monthly basis. The FBI’s UCR Program has established various time frames and deadlines for acquiring the monthly data. Monthly reports/submissions should be received at the FBI by the seventh day after the close of each month. Annual deadlines are also designated in order to collect/assess receipt of monthly submissions. There are times when special

circumstances may cause an agency to request an extension. The FBI’s UCR Program has the authority to grant these extensions. Although monthly reports are preferred by agencies, the FBI’s UCR Program has agencies that submit data quarterly, twice a year, and even once a year. Upon approval, the FBI UCR Program agencies can submit their data at intervals that minimizes the burdens to the agency.

Law enforcement agencies submit ASR data to the FBI UCR Program through either the Summary Reporting System (SRS) or the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The SRS is referred to as the “traditional” FBI UCR Program because it began in 1930, and has had few modifications through the years. The NIBRS is used by participating law enforcement agencies to report offenses and relevant details by incident, using up to 59 data elements to collect details about offenses, offenders, victims, property, and arrestees reported to police. Developed in the late 1980’s, the NIBRS was designed as an automated system to modernize UCR, and includes automated checks to ensure data quality.

As the UCR ASR data collection is intended to collect all reported ASR offenses from law enforcement agencies in the U.S., sampling methodologies are not used. The FBI UCR Program does estimate ASR data. Using well-established procedures, the FBI UCR Program estimates for missing ASR data for agencies with partial reports and for nonreporting agencies.

Table 29 of Crime in the United States (CIUS) provides the estimated number of persons arrested for the 28 offenses for which the FBI’s UCR Program collects data. The arrest totals presented in this table are national estimates based on the arrest statistics of all law enforcement agencies participating in the UCR Program (including those submitting less than 12 months of data). The estimated total number of arrests in this table is the sum of estimated arrest volumes for 28 offenses, not including suspicion. The arrest total for each of the individual offenses is the sum of the estimated volumes within each of the eight population groups. The FBI calculates each group’s estimate by dividing the reported volume figures (as shown in table 31) by the contributing agencies’ jurisdictional populations. The resulting figure is then multiplied by the total population for each population group. Tables 30-69 of CIUS present ASR data as it is reported to the FBI. Data in these tables are not estimated. The FBI relies on the integrity of data contributors reporting data, however, Quality Assurance Reviews are conducted by the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division’s Audit Unit on a triennial basis. The results of the audits are not used to adjust crime data, but are used to educate reporting agencies on compliance with national UCR guidelines. Approximately 68 percent of the UCR law enforcement agencies submit ASR data.

Response rates are maximized through liaison with state UCR Programs. Communications encouraging data submissions occur frequently because of the relationship between FBI UCR staff and law enforcement agencies. FBI UCR staff has a strong understanding of contextual challenges agencies face in reporting valid and reliable data and regularly work to overcome nonresponse issues when such challenges occur. The mission of the FBI UCR Program is to acquire ASR data, establish guidelines for the collection of such data, and publish ASR data. Although the FBI makes every effort through its editing procedures, training practices, and correspondence to ensure the validity of the data it receives, the accuracy of the statistics depends primarily on the adherence of each contributor to the established standards of reporting. Currently, 68 percent of the FBI UCR Program agencies report ASR data. The universe of reported ASR offenses are collected by contributing agencies and reported to the FBI. The FBI is working to help the absent 32 percent of law enforcement agencies participate in the data collection with the FBI CJIS Division’s creation of the UCR Redevelopment Project (UCRRP) to manage the acquisition, development, and integration of a new information systems solution which affects UCR participating local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies. The UCRRP's goal is to improve UCR efficiency, usability, and maintainability while increasing the value to users of UCR products. The UCRRP will reduce, to the point of elimination, the exchange of printed materials between submitting agencies and the FBI and replace those with electronic submissions. The FBI UCR Program has begun the process of eliminating the exchange of paper for crime reporting purposes. Beginning July 2013, the FBI UCR Program will begin moving submitting agencies away from paper submissions. After a period of transition, the expectation is to have all data interfaces electronically managed, with a goal of minimal paper burden on the public. The UCRRP has developed five options for paperless submissions, they are: Extensible Markup Language, Flat File Formats, Online Data Entry, a data extraction from the Law Enforcement National Data Exchange Program, and an FBI provided Excel Workbook and Tally Book. Training also encourages participation in the FBI’s UCR Program. The FBI has trainers who provide on-site training for any law enforcement agency that participates in the FBI UCR Program. The trainers furnish introductory, intermediate, or advanced courses in data collection procedures and guidelines. In addition, the trainers are available by telephone or e-mail to provide law enforcement agencies with answers to specific questions about classification or scoring. Providing vital links between local law enforcement and the FBI in the conduct of the UCR Program are the Criminal Justice Information Systems Committees of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA). The IACP, as it has since the Program began, represents the thousands of police departments nationwide. The NSA encourages sheriffs throughout the country to participate fully in the Program. Both committees serve in advisory capacities concerning the UCR Program’s operation. The Association of State Uniform Crime Reporting Programs (ASUCRP) focuses on UCR issues within individual state law enforcement associations and also promotes interest in the FBI UCR Program. These organizations foster widespread and responsible use of uniform crime statistics and lend assistance to data contributors when needed.

The FBI has conducted the ASR information collection since 1952 with high rates of response and has specific plans to further improve participation; proposed initiatives are described in Part B #3. During implementation of the ASR information collection extensive research regarding arrests was conducted by members of the FBI UCR Program staff, the IACP, the Committee on UCR Records, and Bureau of Census. Liaison with members of law enforcement, IACP, NSA, and the CJIS Advisory Policy Board (APB) had been effective in the effort to collect ASR data and to design a collection form which would provide meaningful information to all those concerned. Beginning in 1980, in response to Public Law 94-311 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular #A-46, the FBI’s UCR Program began collecting ethnic origin data concerning persons arrested. The FBI’s UCR Program expanded its arrest data collection to include the ethnic origin of arrestees. In 1986 the directive to collect the ethnic origin data was no longer in effect, and there was no reason to collect such data. The ASR forms were revised to delete all references to ethnic origin. In 1997 the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity were revised and had to be adopted by federal agencies by 2003. The revision included ethnicity to be recorded along with race. OMB informed the FBI’s UCR Program that adopting the new standards was a requirement, therefore the ASR forms readopted the collection of ethnicity. The changes were not tested with the fact that ethnic origin had been collected in previous years and program users still collect the data in state record management systems. Although testing was not done, the addition of ethnic categories were vetted through the CJIS APB process and no comments or suggestions of problems with the form had been reported through the CJIS APB Working Groups, UCR Subcommittee, CJIS APB, or the ASUCRP which meet frequently throughout each year and are dedicated to improving the collection, use, and utility of crime data as reported through the FBI UCR Program and all state and local crime reporting programs.