Most Justified Homicides are not recorded in the FBI UCR

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bignflnut
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Most Justified Homicides are not recorded in the FBI UCR

Post by bignflnut »

Most justified homicides, both by police and by private citizens, are not recorded in the FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR).

The Washington post has been collecting information on fatal police shootings from published sources and social media for the last three years.

They have found that police in the United States consistently shoot and kill about a thousand people each year. Virtually all of them are justified homicides.

SNIP

The ratio of the Post recorded fatal shootings by police vs. the justifiable homicide shootings by police, recorded by the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, is 45 percent.

Only 45 percent of fatal police shootings are officially recorded by the FBI in the UCR.

Police have strong incentives to record justifiable shootings by their officers.

There are significant incentives to not record justifiable shootings by private citizens.

SNIP

About 19 percent of homicides are felony homicides, so there is plenty of room for justifiable homicides to be recorded as murder under the felony murder rule.

The reporting system for the FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is voluntary. Most justified homicides are not recorded.

According to studies, the FBI UCR only catches about 20 percent of the justifiable homicides by private citizens.

FBI Recorded 338 justified homicides by private citizens in 2015, and 331 in 2016.

It is likely there were 1,600 to 1,700 justified homicides by private citizens in each of those years.
FBI data may not be the best way to make a statistical case, and the FBI is having a reputation crisis anyhow.
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Re: Most Justified Homicides are not recorded in the FBI UCR

Post by JediSkipdogg »

Part of the problem too is how they are report. George Zimmerman is a classic example. Since he was charged his homicide went in as not justified. He was cleared by the courts thereby ruling it justified. However, UCR requirements do not require the police to update the record as it only pertains to the original crime and not the final outcome in court.
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