amount of the theft, e.g., grand larceny (a felony) and petty larceny (a misdemeanor). Some states consolidate the offenses of larceny, embezzlement, and false pretenses into the crime of "theft:" "To eliminate some of the subtle distinctions between the various theft offenses, the trend is to consolidate them into a single theft offense" (Wallace and Roberson, 1996, p. 194). Because the UCR establishes separate categories for fraud and embezzlement under the heading of Part II (other offenses) in addition to the Part I larceny-theft category, the Crime Index that it compiles is not a true barometer of the incidence of white collar crime because some agencies may have opted to report such crimes as Part II offenses.
The reporting categories of other white collar crimes can also lead to discrepancies in UCR data, since the term "white collar crime" encompasses such an extremely broad range of offenses. Some common offense categories include antitrust and securities crimes, bribery, false claims, mail fraud, tax fraud, credit fraud, and bank embezzlement (Weisburd, Wheeler, Waring, and Bode, 1991, p. 52). Their inclusion as Part I or Part II offenses in the Crime Index is dependent on the discretion of the reporting agency. For instance, some agencies might list false pretenses crime as Part I offenses under larceny-theft whereas other agencies might list them under Part II in the fraud category.
The UCR data is compiled by the FBI from monthly law enforcement reports. The FBI receives these reports directly from law enforcement agencies themselves or via centralized state crime statistics agencies. Over 16,000 city, county, and state law enforcement agencies participate. UCR findings and analysis of the eight Part I index offenses is published in an annual report, Crime in the United States. UCR statistics measure crimes that are known to the police, e.g., crimes reported to the police or directly observed by the poli...