Criminal Statistics in the United States. 1960

Abstract

Ronald H. Beattie is Chief of the Bureau of Criminal Statistics, California Department of Justice, a position which he has held since 1945. He was formerly Statistician in the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, and Statistician (criminal statistics) in the United States Bureau of the Census. Besides various other articles relating to criminal statistics, he co-authored SURVEY OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN OREGON (1932) with Wayne L. Morse and wrote CRIMINAL JUDICIAL STATISTICS FOR CALIFORNIA (1936). Mr. Beattie presents a critical analysis of the current status of criminal statistics in the United States. Examining the scope of available criminal statistics, as well as their reliability, he warns against certain uses of current figures not warranted in light of their various inadequacies. The principal shortcomings which he finds in present national statistics derive in large part from the fact that figures are compiled by many different local agencies of varying efficiency, with inconsistent criteria, and under differing criminal laws. His main suggestion for improving this situation is that states should improve their facilities for collecting statistical information on crime and criminals. Should this occur, compilers of national figures would then have more reliable bases for establishing national statistics and for determining when reliable comparisons among the various state figures could be made.