A Note on the Use of County-Level UCR Data

Author: Maltz, M. D. / Targonski, J.
Publication: Journal of Quantitative Criminology
Topics: Social Science Surveillance/Data Collection
Keywords: UCR concealed weapons county-level crime data crime statistics guns
Bibliographic information +

The authors describe inconsistencies and weaknesses in the estimation techniques used to fill missing information on county-level crime data, which may affect studies that use Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data. They conclude that UCR data should not be used in policy studies, until better methods for estimating county-level crime data are developed.