VT Census Case Studies : Crime Reports

Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:

The Crime Report dataset shows real time crime incidences and location. The source also contains all of the physical attributes and location of all registered Sex offenders across the United States. Other incidences reported include theft, theft from vehicle, breaking and entering, homicide, robbery, assault, assault with deadly weapon, sexual assault and vehicle recovery. These crimes are all geocoded by location of where they happened. Tips and new incidences can be sent in by any online user at any point in time to update the dataset.

Link:  https://www.crimereports.com/

Date Inventory Completed: 05/26/2015

Screening

  • Is the data collected opinion-based?
  • Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
  • Is there data available for 2013?
  • Is the data collected at the property or housing unit level?
  • Can we access the data by August 15th?

Purpose

  • What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?

To inform citizens about the crime being reported in their neighborhood.

  • Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?

This data is used to keep citizens informed and safe.

  • Who else uses the data?

Citizens

  • Who do they sell the data to?

Unknown


Method

  • What is the data collection method? 

Tips and police reports

  • What is the type of data collected? 

Intentional observation and administrative

  • If designed, who created the questions?

  • What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)? 

Citizens and police seeing and reporting crimes


Description

  • What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?

Criminal actions

  • What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?

Real-time crime reports reported in the past month

  • Is data collected and available periodically?

It is constantly updated

  • How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided? 

Almost immediately


Selectivity

  • What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?

All people experiencing a criminal action, and sex offenders


Accessibility

  • How is the data accessed? 

  • Is it open data?

Yes

  • Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?

No

  • Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?

None

Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? NO

Explanation:

This dataset is meant more for people to use as a way to inform themselves about the current happenings in their neighborhood or future/potential neighborhood and is not maintained in a way that one could look back at years of history. The focus is on real-time data.