Term
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Definition
| The unlawful, intentional inflicting or attempted or threatened inflicting, of serious injury upon the person of another. While aggravated assault & simple assault are standard terms for reporting purposes, most state penal codes use labels like first-degree & second-degree to make such distinctions. |
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Term
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Definition
| Any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle, or aircraft, personal property of another, & so on. Some instances of arson result from malicious mischief, some involve attempts to claim insurance money, & some are committed in an effort to disguise other crimes, such as murder, burglary, or larceny. |
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Term
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Definition
| An unlawful attack on one person upon another. Historically, assault meant only the attempt to inflict injury on another person; a completed act constituted the separate offense of battery. Under modern statistical usage, however, attempted & completed acts are grouped together under the generic term assault. |
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Term
| Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) |
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Definition
| A U.S. Department of Justice agency responsible for the collection of criminal justice data, including the annual National Crime Victimization Survey. |
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Term
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Definition
| The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft (excludes tents, trailers, & other mobile untis used for recreational purposes). Under the UCR/NIBRS program, the crime of burglary can be reported if (1) an unlawful entry of an unlocked structure has occurred, (2) a breaking & entering (of a secured structure) has taken place, or (3) a burglary has been attempted. |
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Term
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Definition
| A traditional measure of investigative effectiveness that compares the number of crimes reported or discovered to the number of crimes solved through arrest or other means (such as the death of the suspect). |
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Term
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Definition
| A violation of a criminal statue by a corporate entity or by its executives, employees, or agents acting on behalf of & for the benefit of the corporation, partnership, or other form of business entity. |
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Term
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Definition
| A now defunct but once inclusive measure of the UCR Program's violent & property crime categories, or what are called Part I offenses. The Crime Index, long featured in the FBI's publication Crime in the United States, was discontinued in 2004. The index had been intended as a tool for geographic (state-to-state) & historical (year-to-year) comparisons via the use of crime rates (the number of crimes per unit of population). However, criticism that the index was misleading arose after researchers found that the largest of the index's crime categories, larceny-theft, carried undue weight & led to an underappreciation of changes in the rates of more violent & serious crime. |
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Term
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Definition
| A classification of crimes along a particular dimension, such as legal categories, offender motivation, victim behavior, or the characteristics of individual offenders. |
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Definition
| Any crime perpetrated through the use of computer technology. Also, any violation of a federal or state cybercrime statute. |
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Term
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Definition
| The use of the Internet, e-mail, & other electronic communcation technologies to stalk another person. |
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Term
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Definition
| Crime that is not reported to the police & remains unknown to officials. |
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Term
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Definition
| Unlawful forced sexual intercourse with a female against her will that occurs within the context of a dating relationship. Date rape, or acquaintance rape, is a subcategory of rape that is of special concern today. |
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Term
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Definition
| The carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly & against her will. For statistical reporting purposes, the FBI defines forcible rape as "unlawful sexual intercourse with a female, by force & against her will, or without legal or factual consent." Statutory rape differs from forcible rape in that generally involves nonforcible sexual intercourse with a minor. |
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Term
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Definition
| A criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin. |
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Term
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Definition
| A crime in which an imposter obtains key pieces of information, such as Social Security & driver's license numbers, to obtain, credit, merchandise, & services in the name of the victim. The victim is often left with a ruined credit history & the time consuming & complicated task of repairing the financial damage. |
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Term
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Definition
| The unlawful taking or attempted taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another. Motor vehicles are excluded. Larceny is the most common of the eight major offenses, although probably a small percentage of all larcenies are actually reported to the police because of the small dollar amounts involved. |
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Term
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Definition
| The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle. A motor vehicle is defined as a self-propelled road vehicle that runs on land surface & not on rails. The stealing of trains, planes, boats, construction equipment, & most farm machinery is classified as larceny under the UCR/NIBRS Program, not as motor vehicle theft. |
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Term
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Definition
| The unlawful killing of a human being. Murder is a generic term that in common usage may include first & second degree murder, manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, & other similar offenses. |
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Term
| National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) |
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Definition
| An annual survey of selected American households conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics to determine the extent of criminal victimization-especially unreported victimization in the United States. |
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Term
| National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) |
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Definition
| An incident-based reporting system that collects detailed data on every single crime occurrence. NIBRS data is replacing the kinds of summary data that have been traditionally provided by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program. |
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Term
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Definition
| The unlawful activities of the member of a highly organized, disciplined association engaged in supplying illegal goods or services, including gambling, prostitution, loan-sharking, narcotics, & labor racketeering, & in other unlawful activities. |
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Term
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Definition
| A UCR/NIBRS offense group used to report murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, & arson, as defined under the FBI's UCR/NIBRS Program. |
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Term
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Definition
| A UCR/NIBRS offense group used to report arrests for less serious offenses. Agencies are limited to reporting only arrest information for Part II offenses, with the exception of simple assault. |
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Term
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Definition
| A UCR/NIBRS summary offense category that includes burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, & arson. |
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Term
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Definition
| Unlawful sexual intercourse achieved through force & without consent. Broadly speaking, the term rape has been applied to a wide variety of sexual attacks & may include same-sex rape & the rape of a male by a female. Some jurisdictions refer to same-sex rape as sexual battery. |
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Term
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Definition
| The unlawful taking or attempted taking of property that is in the immediate possession of another by force or violence &/or by putting the victim in fear. Armed robbery differs from unarmed, or strong-arm robbery in that it involves a weapon. Contrary to popular conceptions, highway robbery does not necessarily occur on a street & rarely in a vehicle. The term highway robbery applies to any form of robbery that occurs outdoors in a public place. |
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Term
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Definition
| Intentional & wrongful physical contact with a person, without his or her consent, that entails a sexual component or purpose. |
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Term
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Definition
| Repeated harassing & threatening behavior by one individual against another, aspects of which may be planned or carried out in secret. Stalking might involve following a person, appearing at a person's home or place of business, making harassing phone calls, leaving written messages or objects, or vandalizing a person's property. Most stalking laws require that the perpetrator make a credible threat of violence against the victim or members of the victim's immediate family. |
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Term
| Transnational Organized Crime |
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Definition
| Unlawful activity undertaken & supported by organized criminal groups operating across national boundaries. |
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Term
| Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program |
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Definition
| A statistical reporting program run by the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) division. The UCR program publishes Crime in the United States, which provides an annual summation of the incidence & rate of reported crimes throughout the United States. |
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Term
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Definition
| A UCR/NIBRS summary offense category that includes murder, rape, robbery, & aggravated assault. |
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Term
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Definition
| Violations of the criminal law committed by a person of respectability & high social status in the course of his or her occupation. Also, nonviolent crime for financial gain utilizing deception & committed by anyone woh has special technical or professional knowledge of business or government, irrespective the person's occupation. |
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