History: Revision of the Atcherley Modus Operandi System

We don't have any standards for diagnosing crime problems - we are more like tradesmen who learn their craft on the job. We don't have taxonomies - systems of classifications that diagnose crimes beyond the statistical purposes of UCR and NIBRS.

In 1919, August Vollmer wrote the Revision of the Atcherley Modus Operandi System. The first sentence: "An old officer in the police service once said, "There is a clew to every crime."

Vollmer states, "No orderly system of classifying the professional criminal's methods of operation was used in any police department in this coun-try or in England until the Modus Operandi System devised by Major L. W. Atcherley, N. V. 0. West Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary, was adopted by some of the English police organizations."

He proposed a classification system to track the following:

A-CRIME.
B-PERSON OR PROPERTY ATTACKED.
C-HOW ATTACKED.
D-WITH WHAT ATTACKED OR MEANS OF ATTACK.
E-TIME OF ATTACK.
F-OBJECT OF ATTACK.
G-BY WHOM ATTACKED.
H-NATIONALITY OF ATTACKERS.
I-COLOR AND NUMBER OF ATTACKERS.
J-INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTACK OR TRADEMARK.

UCR and NIBRS don't include the individual characteristic or trademark of crimes - these often are the indicators and are more qualitative than quantitive.

Vollmer's work reflects the time he lived in: prejudiced and very dated. For example, a victim of a worthless check category is "chicken dealer." It is an interesting read, for sure.