RD121 - Annual Report on Crime in Virginia


Executive Summary:
Development of the nationwide summary Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program began seventy-five years ago. In 1930, crime counts were first requested from local police departments, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation designated by Congress to collect, compile, and analyze these statistics. The Committee on Uniform Crime Records of the International Association of Chiefs of Police played a primary role in the origin and development of the UCR Program and, to this day, serves in a strong advisory capacity. The National Sheriff’s Association (NSA) in 1966, established a Committee on Uniform Crime Reporting to serve in an advisory capacity to the NSA membership and the national Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Today, this Committee and similar committees within the state law enforcement associations are active in promoting interest in the UCR Program. Standardized offense classifications and scoring procedures to ensure uniformity and consistency of data were the keynote of the reports. All of the Uniform Crime Reports were designed to be a by-product of information that a law enforcement agency should routinely compile for its own efficient administration and performance. The underlying philosophy and focus is and always has been oriented toward police statistics for use by law enforcement agencies, but the unique nature of the program makes the data invaluable for use by elected officials and the American public.

The FBI has actively assisted individual states in the development of statewide programs of police statistics compatible with the national system. These state statistical programs provide the advantage of increased coverage of law enforcement agencies due to mandatory reporting requirements. State systems also provide direct and frequent service to law enforcement agencies in assuring completeness and quality of information provided by them. Through coordination by the state collection agency, the data is available for use by the state, and the collection and reporting machinery for the national program is substantially streamlined.

Prior to June 30, 1974, no mandatory uniform crime reporting law existed in Virginia, and of the 288 agencies in the Commonwealth, 162 or 56% were voluntarily reporting directly to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Effective law enforcement requires the coordinated action of all law enforcement agencies within and among political subdivisions. Special attention must often be devoted to a selective and concentrated effort both area wide as well as in terms of a specific pattern and type of criminal behavior. Selective and coordinated enforcement becomes possible only when the type and volume of crime can be analyzed on a basis of accurate information, statistically developed and coordinated.

The need for statistical information on the number of offenses and offenders was long recognized in the state. The system developed in Virginia gave vital information that assisted law enforcement agencies throughout the state by furnishing information for management decisions and planning programs. Virginia has now converted to a more extensive data collection system. This new system is discussed on the following page.

A statewide UCR program informs the Governor, Legislature, local and state law enforcement agencies, other governmental officials, and the public as to the nature of crime problems in Virginia, their magnitude, and their trend over a period of time. Local and state officials are able to assess the direction and impact of crime through the collection of timely and reliable statistical information.

UCR SYSTEM OBJECTIVES

The fundamental objectives of the Virginia Uniform Crime Reporting Program are:

(1) To inform the Governor, Legislature, and other governmental officials, and the public as to the nature of the crime problem in Virginia—its magnitude and its trend.

(2) To provide law enforcement administrators with criminal statistics for administrative and operational use.

(3) To determine who commits crimes by age, sex, race, and other attributes in order to find the proper focus for crime prevention and enforcement.

(4) To provide base data and statistics to measure the workload and effectiveness of Virginia’s criminal justice system.

(5) To provide base data and statistics to measure the effects of prevention and deterrence programs.

(6) To provide base data and statistics for research to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and performance of criminal justice agencies.

(7) To provide base data to assist in the assessment of social and other causes for the development of theories of criminal behavior.