The US versus the UK in crime fighting efficiency

University Degree Mathematical and Computer Sciences

Statement of Task

I plan to conduct a survey on the capabilities of the police department of the United States in fighting crime. To do this, I will look at numbers, published by the FBI, on incarceration, arrests and crimes committed over a period of sixteen years. To find the efficiency of the police force, I will then calculate the number of crimes that went unsolved, and then the number of cases without an arrested suspect. I will do this by subtracting the number of offenders convicted, and then the number of suspects arrested for the police-recorded offenses of that year. The survey will be conducted in two parts. Part one will focus on the United States, while part two will contrast the US data with data found from a census surveys in the United Kingdom, also published on the FBI website. This comparison is mainly used to contrast US developments in crime with that of the rest of the world. However, collected US data was greater than collected UK data, so the comparison will only existed between the number of crimes remaining unsolved. The crime categories that both countries were calculated for will be: murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft.

To judge whether, over the period of sixteen years, efficiency has improved, the results will be graphed using excel, and the linear regression, or “r value” will be found, so determining the correlation between the increase or decrease in crime fighting efficiency in the US and the UK, and also, determine the degree of efficiency change over a period of sixteen years in the US.

Data Collection

The data I have collected is freely available on the FBI website, as part of a study conducted on crime between the US and the UK. Unfortunately, the Home Office website for the United Kingdom was unable to produce data from sixteen years ago online; as such data had been archived. Living in the United States, there was no way I could see such materials. However, from the data the FBI had made available to the public, I could make a limited comparison between the US and UK.

Part One Data

Table #1 Murder in the US from 1981-1994

Table # 2 Rape in the US from 1981-1994

Table # 3 Robbery in the US from 1981-1994

Table # 4 Assault in the US from 1981-1994

Table # 5 Burglary in the US from 1981-1994

Table # 6 Motor Vehicle Theft in the US from 1981-1994

From these table we can already gather that burglary is the most frequent crime in the US, with Murder being the least frequent. Crime has increased from 1981-1994 in all areas except burglary, where the number of recorded crimes has decreased.

Part Two Data

Table # 7 Murder in the UK from 1981-1995

Table # 8 Rape in the UK from 1981-1995

Table ...