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The article analyzes widely recognized shortcomings of the Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics as measures of crime with a focus on the scope for reactivity. In relation to political pressure and crime reports, measures that are related to getting crime rates down in the U. S. are discussed. Statistics were widely used to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies of crime control. Evaluation of the effectiveness of crime control programs typically depends upon crime statistics of the kind that are collected for the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. UCR program was administered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Patterns of data that are related to District of Columbia are analyzed. Comparisons with other cities such as Baltimore and philadelphia are made. The analysis focuses on reactivity of measures of the crime. Implications of reactivity for analysis of the impact of public policy are also discussed. It is concluded that the UCR system is found to be useless as a tool for evaluation of social policy.

This article proposes a methodology of conducting a citizen evaluation on the public's satisfaction with police service. Police have traditionally relied on crime statistics as an indication of how well they are carrying out their duties. Preventing crime and apprehending criminals are, of course, primary goals of a police force. But to assess performance by this single standard is to discount many other services which police departments provide, services which help to maintain order but contribute only indirectly to crime control. For some time now, the Inspectional Services Unit (ISU) of the Baltimore Police Department had been performing a routine check on the response to calls for service. The Baltimore Police Department's efforts to monitor its performance with a quality control check raised the possibility of standardizing the procedure for use by other departments in the country. After several months of working closely with ISU, a method was developed that would provide a simple basis for comparison over time or among different departments. The major task was to construct an interview schedule, which included most of the features of the unstructured interview then in use.

A number of measures of the criminal environments of two communities demonstrate that the sample living in the area with the higher official crime rate was more concerned about the local crime problems than was the sample from the low crime rate suburbs. Support for the law, measured by the number of crimes a subject expressed a willingness to report to the police, also showed a significant cross-sample differences, with the residents of the high crime rate urban area being less willing to call the police. This inverse relationship between criminal environment and support for the law was also tested within each sample, and it was found that while the relationship was not statistically significant for either sample, it was in the direction expected, that is the more crime perceived, the less support for the law. Three explanations for this relationship were explored, all of which probably have value in explaining the inverse relationship between criminal environment and support for the law.