Editing Uniform Crime Reports (section)

==History==

=== Formation by the IACP & SSRC and Initial Reports (1927-1930) ===
The UCR Program was based upon work by the [[International Association of Chiefs of Police]] (IACP) and the [[Social Science Research Council]] (SSRC)<ref>Lawrence Rosen, "The Creation of the Uniform Crime Report", ''Social Science History'' 19:2 (Summer 1995):215–238.</ref> throughout the 1920s to create a uniform national set of crime statistics, reliable for analysis. In 1927, the IACP created the Committee on Uniform Crime Reporting to determine statistics for national comparisons. The committee concluded that eight index crimes were fundamental to comparing crime rates across geographic locations: [[Murder|murder and non-negligent manslaughter]], [[Negligent homicide|negligent manslaughter]], [[Rape|forcible rape]], [[robbery]], [[Assault#Aggravated assault|aggravated assault]], [[burglary]], [[Larceny|larceny-theft]], and [[motor vehicle theft]]. (From 1930 to 1957, negligent manslaughter was included as an index crime.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last1=United States Department of Justice |last2=Federal Bureau of Investigation |date=2003-06-19 |title=Uniform Crime Reports [United States], 1930-1959 |url=https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/NACJD/studies/3666/versions/V1 |archive-url= |website=Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research}}</ref> In 1979, [[arson]] would be added as an index crime by a congressional directive.) 

The early program was managed by the IACP and published through a monthly report.<ref name=":0" /> The first report in January 1930 reported data from 400 cities throughout 43 states, covering more than 20 million individuals, approximately twenty percent of the total U.S. population at the time.<ref name=":1">[https://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_00/contents.pdf Crime in the United States 2000]. (PDF). Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice. Washington, D.C.. Retrieved on 30 March 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100414194515/http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_00/contents.pdf Archived] on 14 April 2010.</ref>

=== Transition to Oversight by the FBI (1930) ===
The intention of the IACP in developing the UCR program was always to have its management transferred to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI).<ref name=":1" /> Through IACP lobbying, on June 11, 1930 the [[United States Congress]] passed legislation enacting [[Title 28 of the United States Code|28 U.S.C.]] § 534, which granted the office of the [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] the ability to "acquire, collect, classify, and preserve identification, criminal identification, crime, and other records" and the ability to appoint officials to oversee this duty, including the subordinate members of the Bureau of Investigation. The Attorney General, in turn, designated the FBI to serve as the national clearinghouse for the data collected, and the FBI assumed responsibility for managing the UCR Program in September 1930. In the July 1930 issue of the crime report the IACP announced the FBI's takeover of the program. While the IACP discontinued oversight of the program, they continued to advise the FBI on how to better the UCR.

Since 1935, the FBI served as a data clearinghouse, organizing, collecting, and disseminating information voluntarily submitted by local, state, federal and tribal law enforcement agencies. The UCR remained the primary tool for collection and analysis of data for the next half century.

=== Development of NIBRS (1980s-present) ===
Throughout the 1980s, a series of National UCR Conferences were with members from the IACP, Department of Justice, including the FBI, and newly formed [[Bureau of Justice Statistics]] (BJS). The purpose was to determine necessary system revisions and then implement them. The result of these conferences was the release of a ''Blueprint for the Future of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program''<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=U.S. Department of Justice |url=https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/bjs/98348.pdf |title=Blueprint for the Future of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program: Final Report of the UCR Study |last2=Bureau of Justice Statistics |last3=Federal Bureau of Investigation |year=1985}}</ref> release in May 1985, detailing the necessary revisions. The key recommendations made by the report were 1) a move to requesting data on each individual offense rather than monthly totals, 2) a move to requesting more detailed data about crime incidents including more specific data used to classify offenses and information like the victim and offender's demographic characteristics, their relationship, and the location of the crime, and 3) quality assurance measures like routine audits, minimum reporting-system standards, increased feedback to and from local agencies, and strengthening of state-level UCR Programs. 

These recommendations were implemented in the form of the [[National Incident-Based Reporting System]] (NIBRS). The FBI began accepting data in the new NIBRS format in January 1989.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last1=U.S. Department of Justice |url=https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/125018NCJRS.pdf |title=Crime in the United States: Uniform Crime Reports, 1989 |last2=Federal Bureau of Investigation |date=August 5, 1990 |year=1990}}</ref> For many years, the FBI collected UCR data in both the NIBRS and traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS) formats. In 2015, in consultation with their law enforcement partners and the [[FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division|Criminal Justice Information Services]] (CJIS) Advisory Policy Board, the FBI announced that it would be retiring the SRS format.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Christman |first1=Michael A. |last2=Piquero |first2=Alexis R. |date=2022-10-05 |title=New and Better Crime Data for the Nation |url=https://www.justice.gov/opa/blog/new-and-better-crime-data-nation |access-date=2024-09-18 |website=U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs |language=en}}</ref> As of January 1, 2021, the SRS has been discontinued and been fully replaced by (NIBRS).<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Federal Bureau of Investigation |title=National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) |url=https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/more-fbi-services-and-information/ucr/nibrs |access-date=September 17, 2024}}</ref>