USA-Alaska Crime Data Comparison

Student name: Kieon Holder 

Student ID: 30508632

Advantages and disadvantages of official crime data:

Official data is the set of numerical data and the government and also the agencies of government collect this data. Official data is a form of quantitative data at the secondary level and from surveys at a large scale, official data is collected. In sociological research official statistics is used. Whereas the non-official crime data numerically collect data from both the organization such as from public as well from private organizations. 

Cost, as well as time, can also be saved by the official statistics and these can be accessed easily. Official statistics also give a good overview of the present society. Fairly the collection of data is due to stringent rules on a survey and it is easy for sociologists in identifying the trends.

Whereas there are some disadvantages of official data such as the official data being a social construction. The researcher cannot collect the data for which they are looking.  As this is called secondary data and the researcher doesn’t know how the original data will be collected.

Insights of the crime data compared in a spreadsheet

In the given data, in Alaska in 2013 and 2014 agencies of the state submitted the data according to the definition of UCR but after the full transition in 2021 and changes and transition of Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR)to NIBRS ( National Incident-Based Reporting System) whereas for the agencies the deficiency of data and that is not completely transitioned.

Further, rape data in 2013 & 2014 in Alaska were collected and submitted by the state’s agencies according to the latest definition explained by the UCR whereas, in 2013, in the USA’s crime data, the data related to the rape cases were collected and submitted according to the both the latest definition provided and the original definition launched by the UCR. Moreover, in 1995, 168 murders and other kinds of homicides that came into effect due to the bomb blast of “The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City” are also considered while making the national estimate. Further, in 2001, 2823 murders and other homicides were not included in the national data which came into effect due to an event that happened in September 2001 (Crime Data Explorer, n.d.). 

Further, in the spreadsheet, I’ve shown the weapons used in the crimes made in USA and Alaska which shows that most crimes happened by using personal weapons. The second most used weapon in resulting crimes in the USA is the handgun whereas most crimes in Alaska resulted from using no weapon. This data also helps in identifying and reaching the murderer.

Related to the overall DARE project

This portion of the project will be very helpful in the completion of the overall DARE project as this will provide useful insights about the crimes that happened in the USA and Alaska. Further, this will also help me get further data required and use them in my further projects. I got a verified and trusted source of information to get data in more detail.

References:

Crime Data Explorer. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend