|
| Frequently Asked Questions |
Here are the most popular questions and their answers:
- What is MICR?
- Michigan Incident Crime Reporting (MICR) is Michigan's incident-based reporting system in which data is collected on each single crime occurrence. MICR provides data to the FBI through NIBRS.
- Is participation mandatory?
- Yes. Per P.A. 319 of 1968, all law enforcement agencies are required to submit offense, arrest, and such other information relating to the method, frequency, cause, and prevention of crime at least once a month to the Michigan State Police.
- What is NIBRS?
- The National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is the result of efforts by the FBI and various law enforcement organizations to improve and modernize the Uniform Crime Reporting program. The goals of NIBRS are:
- To enhance the quantity, quality, and timeliness of crime statistical data collected by the law enforcement community.
- To improve the methodology used for compiling, analyzing, auditing, and publishing the collected crime data.
- NIBRS provides additional information to be collected in the following areas: detailed collection of victim and offender data; collection of drug information; increase in offenses from 8 index crimes to 46 offenses; alcohol/drug involvement in all offenses; crime locations; correlation between reported incidents and arrests; reporting of all offenses occurring in the incident.
- What is the difference between "Summary" and "Incident" data?
- Summary data is crime data collected in the form of categories. Incident (MICR or NIBRS) data has a greater ability to capture and breakdown data on each incident and arrest within 22 offense categories made up of 46 specific crimes called Group A offenses. For each incident known to police within these categories, law enforcement collects administrative, offense, victim, property, offender, and arrestee information. In addition to the Group A offenses, there are 11 Group B offenses for which only arrest data is collected. The intent of NIBRS is to take advantage of available crime data maintained in modern law enforcement records systems. Providing considerably more detail, NIBRS yields richer and more meaningful data than those produced by the traditional summary UCR system.
- Why can't I compare data between the Summary and Incident based sites?
- Because of the differences between the UCR summary data and the MICR incident data, any cross-comparisons would provide inaccurate results in trend analysis.
- How are the counts for Stolen Motor Vehicles derived?
- Both Attempted and Stolen Vehicles are counted in this data.
- How do I calculate a crime rate?
- To calculate a crime rate, divide the number of reported crimes by the total population; the result is multiplied by 100,000. Example: 16,790 รท 548,679 x 100,000 = 3,060 for every 100,000 persons.
- What are Crimes Against Persons?
- These are crimes where a person has been victimized such as Murder, Rape, Aggravated Assault, etc.
- What are Crimes Against Property?
- The category of crimes against property includes two groups-crimes in which property is destroyed and crimes in which property is stolen or taken against the owner's will. This type of crime includes: Arson, Burglary, Motor Vehicle Theft, Robbery, etc.
- What are Crimes Against Society?
- "Crimes Against Society" represent society's prohibition against engaging in certain types of activity. The victim of these crimes is society in general. Society Crimes include Drug/Narcotic violations, Betting, Pornography, Prostitution, etc.
- What crimes are considered "Index Crimes"?
- Index crimes include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. These eight crimes serve as a common indicator of the nation's crime experience because of their seriousness and frequency of occurrence.
- What makes an Incident?
- An incident includes one or more offenses committed by the same person or group of persons acting in concert, at the same time and place. An incident is comprised of different records; administrative, offense, offender, victim, arrest, and/or property.
- What are Offenses and Arrests?
- Offenses are unlawful acts reported to a law enforcement agency. Arrests are those individuals seized, held, summoned, or cited by law enforcement agencies for involvement in an unlawful act.
- Why are there differences between Michigan and FBI figures?
- Michigan statistics may be different than the numbers reported by the FBI because the FBI estimates missing data by assigning the same proportional crime volumes to partial and non-reporting local agencies. The size of the agency, type of jurisdiction, and geographic locations are considered in the estimation process.
- What is a Hate Crime?
- A Hate Crime or Bias Crime is a criminal offense committed against a person or property which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a race, religion, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation or disability group. Hate Crimes are not separate, distinct crimes, but rather traditional offenses motivated by the offender's bias.
- What is a Domestic Violence Crime?
- A Domestic Violence Crime is the occurrence of any of the following acts by a person that is not an act of self-defense: causing or attempting to cause physical or mental harm to a family or household member placing a family or household member in fear of physical or mental harm; causing or attempting to cause a family or household member to engage in involuntary sexual activity by force, threat of force, or duress and/or engaging in activity toward a family or household member that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested.
- If one agency assists another, do both agencies report the incident?
- Throughout Michigan, there are hundreds of law enforcement agencies, some of which have overlapping jurisdictions. To be certain that data (offense or arrest) are not reported more than once by overlapping jurisdictions only the lead agency submits the incident to MICR. Only one report on an incident will be submitted in order to avoid duplicate reporting and increasing crime counts.
- How many agencies in Michigan report crime data?
- Although all law enforcement agencies are required to submit incident data each month, not all agencies comply. This may be due to many different factors such as computer system problems or lack of personnel.
- Why report crime data?
- There are many benefits to reporting crime data. This data allows law enforcement agencies to concentrate on major crime issues within the state such as domestic violence and hate crime incidents. The information is used to acquire grant funding resources for fighting crime. If an agency does not submit 12 months of complete data to the FBI, they could be ineligible for federal grant funding. Incident-based reporting contains a wealth of information that can be used to track problems such as drugs trends, find characteristics of victims, perpetrators, and informs law enforcement about the different locations and time property is stolen.
- What crimes should be reported?
- There are 95 specific criminal offenses that are accepted under the Michigan's incident-based reporting system. Crimes range from Arson to Weapon Offenses, with the most serious being Homicide.
- What is an Exceptional Clearance and when can it be made?
- In certain situations, law enforcement are not able to clear an offense known to them by making an arrest. Often they have exhausted all leads and have done everything possible in order to clear a case. An Exceptional Clearance can be made and should be reported under one of the following five circumstances:
- Death of the Offender
- Prosecution Declined
- Extradition Denied
- Victim Refused to Cooperate
- Or it was a juvenile and he or she was not taken into custody.
- What is the "Hierarchy Rule" and how does it affect agency counts?
- The Hierarchy Rule, which requires counting only the highest offense and ignoring all others, applies only to the crime reporting process and does not affect the number of charges for which the defendant may be prosecuted in the courts.
- Are there exceptions to the Hierarchy Rule?
- Yes. Offenses of justifiable homicide, motor vehicle theft, and arson are exceptions to the Hierarchy Rule
- How do I download a report?
- The requested report will automatically return in a HTML format. You can save a copy of the report to your desktop if you select the "Export in Excel" button.
- Why are crimes estimated for publication in the "Crime in Michigan" annual report?
- Because not all law enforcement agencies provide complete data for a given year, it is necessary for the Crime Reporting staff to estimate crime for the missing data to get a more accurate crime trend. For agencies that did not report data, the Crime Reporting staff assign the same proportional crime volumes based on the crime statistics of similar areas within a state. The Crime Reporting staff takes into consideration the size of an agency, type of jurisdiction, and geographic location in the estimation process.
- What if I have questions about MICR that aren't answered here?
- You can contact the Michigan State Police at 517-284-3326.
|