Criminal statistics are used by criminologists and police departments in order to evaluate the levels of safety of certain regions to prevent further crime. Following the trends in crime can be beneficial in case they are adequate. However, there are instances where ethical or racial biases cause the statistics to be inadequate and create prejudice towards racial minorities. The history of racism and false acquisitions of racial minorities causes such issues as police profiling. The stereotypes promoted by racists can affect other members of society.
In the United States, the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) system is established in order to track the statistics on crime. However, the program has various disadvantages associated with its limitations. UCR records only crimes, which are reported to police or local law enforcement agencies. Therefore, the real situation of criminal activities is not represented entirely. Besides that, UCR represents only street crime and lefts out other types of crime such as federal crime, organized crime, or corporate crime. The data collected can be manipulated by the ones in charge of it. Race and ethnicity are also issues as there is a “White” category, which includes both Hispanic and non-Hispanic populations. Therefore, Hispanic ethnicities incarcerated for crime are referred to as “White”, which makes the criminal statistics on race inadequate.
In addition, the war on drugs has caused many Black people to be incarcerated due to drug-related reasons. Hence, the stereotype of a drug dealer of Black or Hispanic origin made innocent people to be suspected of drug-related crimes based solely on their ethnicity or skin color. Therefore, criminal statistics can be useful for crime resolution, but in order for the statistics to be adequate, they must be free of racial, ethnic, or any other bias.