Crime as a Social Indicator:Crime is regarded as a major social problem due to its inherent nature as a threat to society as a whole, and to the individuals who live in that society. Crime reduction and prevention has been, and always will remain to be a top priority of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches in the Untied States. This problem of crime can be measured in many different ways causing argument over what is the best indicator to fully grasp the severity of crime. This creates the concern of how to best identify crime on both a national and local scale.