Criminal justice statistics are collected by a variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The most commonly used criminal justice statistical publications compile data into easy-to-use tables. However, other statistical resources called "data files" are collections of "raw" electronic data on which the advanced student or researcher can perform more sophisticated statistical analysis.

In this chapter you will learn:

• Differences between Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and National Criminal Victimization Survey (NCVS) data gathering techniques
• Which governmental agencies produce criminal justice statistics
• The most commonly used criminal justice statistical publications
• What "raw" data files are and where to acquire them
• Non-governmental sources of criminal justice data

Next: UCR and NCVS, the Two Main Governmental Systems for Measuring Crime