Crime Data Comparison Paper

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) is a program designed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in 1929, with the goal of developing a set of statistics of uniform crime, to be used by policymakers and police. Later the next year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was asked to begin taking records of these statistics and publishing them. There are approximately 17,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide that assist the FBI in collecting and reporting the data for the programs annual reports. These reports are published in several styles of publications including an official website on the internet that is managed by the FBI and can be viewed by the public. These reports consist of crime data from most metropolitan areas across the country. Just about every major city has statistical data that can be viewed at any given time via this FBI website. In this paper, I will compare two metropolitan cities of burglary, identify the number of occurrences of burglary reported in those cities, and I will determine what factors might explain the differences of rates in these areas.

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program defines burglary as the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft. To classify an offense as a burglary, the use of force to gain entry need not have occurred (Crime in the United States, 2009). The UCR has subclassified burglary in three categories such as unlawful entry where no force is used, forcible entry, and attempted forcible entry. The two metropolitan areas that I have chosen for comparison of burglary in 2009 and 2010 are Baltimore-Towson, MD and Bangor, ME.

In 2009, the population including Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard, and Queen Anne's Counties and Baltimore City was 2,693,099 and in the city of Baltimore were 638,755. The burglary crimes on record in 2009 were 7,798. In for 2010, the population including Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard, and Queen Anne's Counties and Baltimore City was 2,720,381 and for the city of Baltimore were 639,929. The burglary crimes for that year were 7,573. As we can see the population went up and the burglary crimes went down. The number of burglaries that was reported to the police in 2009 was 18,191 and in 2010 it was 17,669. In 2009, the population including Penobscot County was 148,774. In the city of Bangor the population was 31,789. In 2010, the population including Penobscot County was 150,537 and the city of Bangor the population was 31,587. The burglary crimes rate in 2009 was 284 and in 2010 it was 198. As we can see the population of Bangor, ME including Penobscot County went up, the city of Bangor population went down, and the crime rate of Bangor, ME went down. The number of burglaries that was reported to the police in 2009 was 949, and in 2010 it was 863. While the crime rate dropping is a positive thing, the actual numbers of people who report the crimes have decreased that means that this decrease will allows more crimes to be committed without anyone being responsible for the acts

Baltimore-Towson, Maryland is the area that has the most reported burglaries incidents which is 18,191 (2009) and 17,669