The Growth of Crime in the United States

Abstract

The growth of crime in the United States has been viewed as a social problem since the founding of the Republic. From at least the middle of the nineteenth century, this growth can be explained as an outcome of the development of crime measurement technology. American crime measurement specialists have consistently operated under a pair of assumptions: that crime is underreported rather than overreported in crime statistics and that rates of crime generally increase. These assumptions have be come the foundation of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Efforts have been devoted to detecting larger rates of crime by using each measure that has been developed, and new measures have continued to be created to supplement the old. Recently, for instance, police departments "refined" their procedures for compiling offense reports, so rates of offenses known to the police climbed dramatically. And the victim survey was developed to supplement police data, with the victim data interpreted as indicating that crime rates are increasing far faster than we had previously imagined. It is proposed that those engaged in crime measurement be given incentives to report fewer offenses. Otherwise, regardless of change in the level of interpersonal conflict in American society, the prophecy of American crime mea surement specialists can be expected to continue to fulfill itself, with an unabated growth of crime.