1110-0005 Supporting Statement Part B (2020)

1110-0005 Supporting Statement Part B (2020).docx

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

⚠️ Notice: This form may be outdated. More recent filings and information on OMB 1110-0005 can be found here:

2023-11-29 - Extension without change of a currently approved collection

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PART B. Statistical Methods

The potential respondent universe of the forms Age, Sex, Race, and Ethnicity of Persons Arrested Under 18 Years of Age (Juvenile ASRE); and Age, Sex, Race, and Ethnicity of Persons Arrested 18 Years of Age and Over (Adult ASRE) includes all United States LEAs who submit their crime statistics via the SRS. In 2019, 9,454 SRS United States LEAs voluntarily participated in the FBI UCR Program. Out of those agencies that voluntarily participate in the FBI UCR Program, approximately 8,054 reported 1-12 months of arrest data to the FBI UCR Program, leaving 14.8 percent of SRS LEAs not reporting any arrest data. LEAs consist of federal, state, county, city, and tribal agencies that correlate to all population group sizes and have many diverse attributes. These 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. See the chart below of participating agencies.

SRS Agencies, 2019
	Population Group	Number of Agencies	Population Covered
Cities	Group I (250,000 inhabitants and more)	47	39,362,500
	Group II (100,000 to 249,999 inhabitants)	128	19,137,352
	Group III (50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants)	284	19,795,908
	Group IV (25,000 to 49,999 inhabitants)	491	16,902,932
	Group V (10,000 to 24,999 inhabitants)	995	15,821,459
	Group VI (Less than 10,000 inhabitants)^1,2	5,166	13,671,387
Counties	Group VIII (Nonmetropolitan County)²	1,141	10,968,657
Counties	Group IX (Metropolitan County)²	1,202	43,926,736
	Total	9,454	179,586,931

¹ Includes universities and colleges to which no population is attributed.

² Includes state police to which no population is attributed.

Number of Months Submitted	Number of Agencies
1 month	68
2 months	54
3 months	54
4 months	78
5 months	102
6 months	140
7 months	175
8 months	336
9 months	172
10 months	240
11 months	844
12 months	5,791
Non-reporting agencies	1,400
Total	9,454

Out of the 9,454 agencies that voluntarily participate in the FBI UCR Program, via the SRS, approximately 5,791 submit twelve months complete data (61.3 percent). Of the remaining agencies, 2,263 submit between one and eleven months of data, and 1,400 are non-reporters.

ASRE data are collected/received from state UCR program participants on a monthly basis. The FBI 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 UCR Program has the authority to grant these extensions. The law enforcement community requested crime data be collected on a monthly basis since police records are processed on a calendar month. However, the FBI UCR Program minimizes burden on smaller LEAs by allowing them to 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.

As the UCR ASRE data collection is intended to collect all reported ASRE arrest data from LEAs in the United States, sampling methodologies are not used. The FBI UCR Program does estimate ASRE data for agencies with partial reports and for non-reporting agencies. Table 29 of CIUS provides the estimated number of persons arrested for the 28 offenses for which the FBI UCR Program collects data. The arrest totals presented in this table are national estimates based on the arrest statistics of all LEAs participating in the FBI 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 ASRE data as it is reported to the FBI. Data in these tables are not estimated.

Although the FBI makes an 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. The FBI relies on the integrity of data contributors reporting data; however, staff from the CJIS Audit Unit are available, by request, to conduct Quality Assurance Reviews. The results of the audits are not used to adjust crime data, but are used to educate reporting agencies on compliance with FBI UCR Program guidelines. Approximately 85.2 percent of the UCR SRS LEAs submit ASRE data.

Response rates are maximized through liaison with state UCR programs. Communications encouraging data submissions occur frequently because of the relationship between the FBI UCR Program staff and LEAs. The FBI UCR Program staff have a strong understanding of contextual challenges agencies face in reporting valid and reliable data and regularly work to overcome non-response issues when such challenges occur. The mission of the FBI UCR Program is to acquire ASRE data, establish guidelines for the collection of such data, and publish ASRE data.

Currently, 61.3 percent of the FBI UCR Program SRS reporting agencies report 12 months of complete arrest data to the FBI and 23.9 percent submit between 1-11 months of data. The remaining 14.8 percent do not participate in the arrest data collection. These agencies are nonresponsive due to being understaffed, underfunded, or are implementing a new data record system. Even though these agencies are non-reporters, they are considered participants of the Program and will submit data when the problems have been resolved. Based on historical reporting trends, similar response rates are expected in future arrest collections, however, the FBI UCR Program actively liaisons with national LEAs to encourage participation in all UCR data collections.

The FBI UCR Program assists agencies in submitting 12 months of complete data through continuous communication. The FBI provides a listing of missing reports to state UCR programs and individual LEAs twice a year. The FBI UCR Program training staff also encourages participation. With the national transition to NIBRS, the FBI no longer provides onsite SRS training, however, the trainers are available by telephone or e-mail to SRS LEAs. They provide guidance and answer specific training questions. Providing vital links between local law enforcement and the FBI in the conduct of the FBI UCR Program are the CJIS 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 organizations serve in advisory capacities concerning the FBI 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 ASRE information collection since 1952. The response rates for the ASRE data have remained relatively consistent from year-to-year. During the implementation of the ASRE information collection in the early 1950’s, extensive research regarding arrests was conducted by members of the FBI UCR Program staff, the IACP, the Committee on UCR Records, and the 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 ASRE 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 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 ASRE forms were revised to delete all references to ethnic origin. Then in 1997, the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity were revised and federal agencies were directed to adopt the changes by 2003. The revision included ethnicity to be recorded along with race. OMB informed the FBI UCR Program that adopting the new standards was a requirement; therefore the ASRE forms were revised to include ethnicity categories. These changes were not retested because ethnic origin had been collected by the FBI in previous years and state contributors continued to collect the ethnic data within their 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 CJIS APB Working Groups, UCR Subcommittee, CJIS APB, or the ASUCRP. These organizations 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. The CJIS APB offers guidance to the FBI UCR Program by attesting to the data collected at their state levels rather than from a statistical standpoint.