Our Founding Scripture
- Chronicles 9:21
21 And later Zechariah son of Meshelemiah
had been responsible for guarding the entrance of the
tabernacle.
22 In all, there were 212 gatekeepers in those days, and
they were listed by genealogies in their villages.
David and Samuel the seer had appointed their ancestors
because they were reliable men.
23 These gatekeepers and their descendants, by their
divisions, were responsible for guarding the entrance to the
house of the LORD, the house that was formerly a tent.
24 The gatekeepers were stationed on all four sides—east,
west, north, and south.
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Church Crime
Statistics
Analysis of Uniform Crime Reports from the FBI
by Chuck Chadwick
I don't know what sparked my interest in this subject again
other than a little common sense.
The pioneer in church security statistics is
Carl Chinn. He has been tracking violent crime
in churches since 1999. Carl and I were talking
about the enormity of trying to track crime
statistics for churches.
There were several web sites using Goggle as
there prime source of church crime tracking.
Those are very helpful in making churches
aware of the daily trends. But those numbers
don't seem to reflect the bigger picture I
was looking for. One study published put the
number at approximately 1,200 for the total
number of crimes at Christian churches in
2009.
Carl brought up the FBI's reports on Uniform
Crime Reports (UCRs). (see foot note for
details on UCRs)
Having over 17,000 departments inputting data on
millions of crimes each year has got to be
valuable data. All I had to do is find a way to
sort out the Church crimes.
With a couple of days research into the National
Archive of Criminal Justice Data I seem to have
found it. The data files are huge and you can't
import a 5.4 million record database into an
Excel spreadsheet. You have to use a database
product like Microsoft Access (at least)
The data file for 2008 has over 5 million
records and among the data structure is a field
called "Location".
Low-and-behold location code 4 is for "Church/
Synagogue/Temple".
There
were over 24,445 crimes
attributed to location code 4
(Churches/Synagogues/Temples).
I
am willing to concede that not all are going
to be Christian churches, but the majority
would be.
We will be bringing you further analysis of the
data soon.
Here is the breakdown for 2008 according to
the FBI -
# of offenses
|
Offense
Description
|
7852
|
Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property
|
5239
|
Burglary/Breaking
and Entering
|
3646
|
All Other Larceny
|
2043
|
Theft From
Building
|
1248
|
Theft From Motor
Vehicle Theft of Motor Vehicle
|
1040
|
Simple Assault
|
541
|
Parts/Accessories
|
398
|
Intimidation
|
367
|
Motor Vehicle
Theft
|
314
|
Drug/Narcotic
Violations
|
218
|
Aggravated Assault
|
212
|
False
Pretenses/Swindle/Confidence Game
|
139
|
Shoplifting
|
136
|
Arson
|
129
|
Counterfeiting/Forgery
|
126
|
Drug Equipment
Violations
|
114
|
Forcible Fondling
(Indecent Liberties/Child Molesting)
|
101
|
Robbery
|
81
|
Weapon Law
Violations
|
76
|
Credit
Card/Automatic Teller Machine Fraud
|
64
|
Forcible Rape
|
63
|
Embezzlement
|
58
|
Stolen Property
Offenses (Receiving, Selling, Etc.)
|
49
|
Purse-snatching
|
47
|
Impersonation
|
34
|
Pocket-picking
|
22
|
Forcible Sodomy
|
21
|
Kidnaping/Abduction
|
13
|
Theft From
Coin-Operated Machine or Device
|
12
|
Pornography/Obscene Material
|
11
|
Sexual Assault
With An Object
|
10
|
Statutory Rape
|
8
|
Wire Fraud
|
5
|
Murder/Nonnegligent
Manslaughter
|
4
|
Extortion/Blackmail
|
2
|
Prostitution
|
1
|
Assisting or
Promoting Prostitution
|
1
|
Bribery
|
24,445
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Info on UCR from the FBI Web Site
It is important for users of UCR data to
remember that the FBI's primary objective is to
generate a reliable set of crime statistics for
use in law enforcement administration,
operation, and management. The FBI does not
provide a ranking of agencies but merely
alphabetical tabulations of states, metropolitan
statistical areas, cities, metropolitan and
nonmetropolitan counties, and colleges and
universities. Law enforcement officials use this
information for their designed purposes.
Additionally, the American public relies on
these data sets for information on the
fluctuations in the level of crime from year to
year, and criminologists, sociologists,
legislators, city planners, the media, and other
students of criminal justice use them for a
variety of research and planning purposes. Since
crime is a sociological phenomenon influenced by
a variety of factors, the FBI discourages
ranking the agencies and using the data as a
measurement of law enforcement effectiveness.
To ensure these data are uniformly reported, the
FBI provides contributing law enforcement
agencies with a handbook that explains how to
classify and score offenses and provides uniform
crime offense definitions. Acknowledging that
offense definitions may vary from state to
state, the FBI cautions agencies to report
offenses not according to local or state
statutes but according to those guidelines
provided in the handbook. Most agencies make a
good faith effort to comply with established
guidelines.
Finally, in a given year, approximately 17,000
agencies contribute data to the FBI; however,
because of computer problems, changes in record
management systems, personnel shortages, or a
number of other reasons, some agencies cannot
provide data for publication. The FBI
appreciates the conscientious efforts made by
law enforcement personnel throughout the nation
to report accurate and reliable crime data.
Their efforts make it possible for the FBI to
provide assessments of the nature and type of
crime in the United States.
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