Rate violent crime offenses per 100,000 people, by year, in the United States 1985-2022
Crime has been recorded in the United States since its founding and has fluctuated significantly over time. Most available data underestimate crime before the 1930s (due to incomplete datasets and other factors), giving the false impression that crime was low in the early 1900s and had a sharp rise after.[1] Instead, violent crime during the colonial period was likely three times higher than the highest modern rates in the data we have, and crime had been on the decline since colonial times.[2] Within the better data for crime reporting and recording available starting in the 1930s, crime reached its broad, bulging modern peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. After 1992, crime rates have generally trended downwards each year, with the exceptions of a slight increase in property crimes in 2001 and increases in violent crimes in 2005–2006, 2014–2016 and 2020–2021.[3] As of July 1, 2024 violent crime was down and homicides were on pace to drop to 2015 levels by the end of the year.[4][5]
As the Marshall Project notes, “By 2020, almost every law enforcement agency was included in the FBI’s database.” But the new system, which went into effect in 2021, is missing a lot of data. In 2022, 32% of police departments stopped reporting crime data, and another 24% of departments only reported crime data for some months during the year. This results in the omitted data not being counted, leading to an artifically lower crime rate.[6] Federal data for 2020–2021 and limited data from select U.S. cities collected by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice showed significantly elevated rates of homicide and motor vehicle theft in 2020–2022.[3][7][8] Although overall crime rates have fallen far below the peak of crime seen in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s,[9][10] the homicide rate in the U.S. has remained high, relative to other "high income"/developed nations, with eight major U.S. cities ranked among the 50 cities with the highest homicide rate in the world in 2022. The aggregate cost of crime in the United States is significant, with an estimated value of $4.9 trillion reported in 2021.[11] Data from the first half of 2023[update], from government and private sector sources show that the murder rate has dropped, as much as 12% in as many as 90 cities across the United States.[12] The drop in homicide rates is not uniform across the country however, with some cities such as Memphis, TN, showing an uptick in murder rates.[12]
The basic aspect of a crime considers the offender, the victim, type of crime, severity and level, and location. These are the basic questions asked by law enforcement when first investigating any situation. This information is formatted into a government record by a police arrest report, also known as an incident report. These forms lay out all the information needed to put the crime in the system and it provides a strong outline for further law enforcement agents to review. Society has a strong misconception about crime rates due to media aspects heightening their fear factor.[14] The system's crime data fluctuates by crime depending on certain influencing social factors such as economics, the dark figure of crime, population, and geography.[14]
Crime over time
Property crime rates in the United States per 100,000 population beginning in 1960. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Despite accusations, notably by Republicans and conservative media, of a "crime crisis" of soaring violent crime under Biden, FBI data indicated the violent crime rate had declined significantly during the president's first two years in office, after a spike in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. By 2022, the violent crime rate was near a 50-year low, and preliminary data released in early 2024 indicated continuing declines in 2023.[15][16][17] As of July 1, 2024 violent crime was down and homicides were on pace to drop to 2015 levels by the end of the year.[4][5]
After World War II, crime rates increased in the United States, peaking from the 1970s to the early-1990s. Violent crime nearly quadrupled between 1960 and its peak in 1991. Property crime more than doubled over the same period. Since the 1990s, however, contrary to common misconception,[18] crime in the United States has declined steadily, and has significantly declined by the late 1990s and also in the early 2000s.
Change in violent crime (July 2019 - July 2024) by Major Cities Chiefs Association
Several theories have been proposed to explain this decline:
The lead–crime hypothesis suggests the removal of lead from gasoline and paint reduced lead exposure, especially in children born after 1978. Scholar Mark A.R. Kleiman writes: "Given the decrease in lead exposure among children since the 1980s and the estimated effects of lead on crime, reduced lead exposure could easily explain a very large proportion—certainly more than half—of the crime decrease of the 1994–2004 period. A careful statistical study relating local changes in lead exposure to local crime rates estimates the fraction of the crime decline due to lead reduction as greater than 90 percent.[19]
The number of police officers hired and employed to various police forces increased considerably in the 1990s.[20]
On September 16, 1994, PresidentBill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act into law. Under the act, over $30 billion in federal aid was spent over a six-year period to improve state and local law enforcement, prisons and crime prevention programs. Proponents of the law, including the President, touted it as a lead contributor to the sharp drop in crime which occurred throughout the 1990s, while critics have dismissed it as an unprecedented federal boondoggle.[21]
Starting in the mid-1980s, the crack-cocaine market grew rapidly before declining again a decade later. Some authors have pointed towards the link between violent crimes and crack use.[20]
Legalized abortion following Roe v. Wade in 1973 reduced the number of children born to mothers in difficult circumstances, and a difficult childhood makes children more likely to become criminals.[22]
The changing demographics of an aging population has been cited for the drop in overall crime.[23]
The introduction of the data-driven policing practice CompStat (management system created in 1994) is claimed to have significantly reduced crimes in cities that adopted it.[24]
The quality and extent of use of security technology both increased around the time of the crime decline, after which the rate of car theft declined; this may have caused rates of other crimes to decline as well.[25]
Each state has a set of statutes enforceable within its own borders. A state has no jurisdiction outside of its borders, even though still in the United States. It must request extradition from the state in which the suspect has fled. In 2014, there were 186,873 misdemeanor suspects outside specific states jurisdiction against whom no extradition would be sought. Philadelphia has about 20,000 of these since it is near a border with four other states. Extradition is estimated to cost a few hundred dollars per case.[30]
Analysis of arrest data from California indicates that the most common causes of felony arrest are for violent offenses such as robbery and assault, property offenses such as burglary and auto theft, and drug offenses. For misdemeanors, the most common causes of arrest were traffic offenses, most notably impaired driving, drug offenses, and failure to appear in court. Other common causes of misdemeanor arrest included assault and battery and minor property offenses such as petty theft.[31]
Arrests by gender
According to the Office of Justice Programs, crimes like burglary and vandalism have gone down during the past few years for men, and crimes like murder and robbery have gone down for women. For both genders, most of the crimes committed are done by people ages 25 and above.
Arrests by Gender (Male) (2016–2020)Arrested Offenders by gender (Female) (2016–2020)Under questioning, Jane Toppan stated she derived a sexual thrill from patients being near death.
Arrests by age
Tintype of Henry McCarty, alias William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid
In 2020, out of the 7,632,470 crimes documented that year, 5,721,190 of them were committed by someone who was at least 25 years of age.[32] 4,225,140 of them being committed by men and 1,496,050 being committed by women.
Although many Americans believe that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes, undocumented immigrants have substantially lower crime rates than native-born citizens.[33] Compared to undocumented immigrants, US-born citizens are over twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the rate of criminality among undocumented immigrants has increased in recent years.[34] The numbers above are from Texas, which is the only state that collects arrests by immigration status, but according to researchers at the CATO Institute there is evidence that a similar relationship holds nationwide.[35]
Using incarceration rates as a proxy for criminality, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S. born citizens. According to the last 150 years of U.S. Census data, immigrants have been incarcerated at a consistently lower rate than US-born citizens throughout this time period, and this gap has widened since 1960.[36][37]
A 1997 report form the US Department of Justice states that "Most violent behavior is learned behavior. Early exposure to violence in the family may involve witnessing either violence or physical abuse.", with exposure to this violence in childhood linked to an increase in violent behaviour as an adolescent by as much as 40%.[39]Gangs and illegal markets provide high levels of exposure to violence, and violent role models and positive rewards for criminal and violent activity, such as drug distribution. Gangs are more likely to be active in poor, minority and disorganized neighborhoods; which have further effects on violent crime; as in those communities there are usually fewer or limited opportunities for employment and evidence suggests these neighbourhoods inhibit the normal progression of adolescent development.
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting statistics in 2019, juveniles (0–17 years) represented 7.13% of arrests (adults: 92.87%); this is down from 12.65% in 2010, with the total number of arrests of juveniles down by 55.5%; this is explained by the drop in arrests of all ages by 21.0%.[40] When controlled for age1, the rate of juveniles arrests in 2010 was 1,296 per 100,000, and in 2019 was 586 per 100,000. Data shows that total arrests increase tenfold from ages 12–14 and then double roughly every 3 years in age from age 14 reaching a peak by age 19 that remains relatively constant until 35.[41]
People are more likely to fear and be less sympathetic toward offenders with a history of violent or sexual crime.[42] Violent criminal history is defined by the FBI as any offense, of a violent felony, including rape, homicide, aggravated assault, and robbery.[43] People tend to express more negative attitude towards violent offenders in comparison to those with a history of non-violent crime, misdemeanors, and no sexual crimes.[42]
NOTES
1. Using Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) statistics, juvenile population in 2010 was 74,122,633, and in 2019 was 73,088,675[44]
Crime victimology
The U.S. accounts for 97% of gun-related child deaths among similar countries, despite making up only 46% of this group's overall population (2020).Homicide victimization rate for whites and blacks, according to the US Bureau of Justice StatisticsGun-related suicides and homicides in the United States (1999-2023)
In 2011, surveys indicated more than 5.8 million violent victimizations and 17.1 million property victimizations took place in the United States; according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, each property victimization corresponded to one household, while violent victimizations is the number of victims of a violent crime.[48]
Patterns are found within the victimology of crime in the United States. Overall, people with lower incomes, those younger than 25, and non-whites were more likely to report being the victim of crime.[48]Income, gender, and age had the most dramatic effect on the chances of a person being victimized by crime, while the characteristic of race depended upon the crime being committed.[48]
In terms of gender, the BJS National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) published in 2019 that "the percentage of violent victimizations reported to police was higher for females (46%) than for males (36%)". This difference can largely be attributed to the reporting of simple assaults, as the percentages of violent victimizations reported to police, excluding simple assault, were similar for females (47%) and males (46%). The victim-to-population ratio of 1.0 for both males and females shows that the percentage of violent incidents involving male (49%) or female (51%) victims was equal to males' (49%) or females' (51%) share of the population.[49]
In regards to rape, the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) indicates females are disproportionately more affected than males. According to the data collected from 2010 to 2020, women make 89% of victims of rape, while men make 11%. Perpetrators are 93% men.[50]
Concerning age, those younger than twenty-five were more likely to fall victim to crime, especially violent crime.[51] The chances of being victimized by violent crime decreased far more substantially with age than the chances of becoming the victim of property crime.[51] For example, 3.03% of crimes committed against a young person were theft, while 20% of crimes committed against an elderly person were theft.[51]
Bias motivation reports showed that of the 7,254 hate crimes reported in 2011, 47.7% (3,465) were motivated by race, with 72% (2,494) of race-motivated incidents being anti-black.[52] In addition, 20.8% (1,508) of hate crimes were motivated by sexual orientation, with 57.8% (871) of orientation-motivated incidents being anti-male homosexual.[52]
The third largest motivation factor for hate crime was religion, representing 18.2% (1,318) incidents, with 62.2% (820) of religion-motivated incidents being anti-Jewish.[52]
The likelihood of falling victim to crime relates to both demographic and geographic characteristics.[54]
In 2010, according to the UNODC, 67.5% of all homicides in the United States were perpetrated using a firearm.[55] The costliest crime in terms of total financial impact on all of its victims, and the most underreported crime is rape, in the United States.[56][57]
Incarceration rates by state. From various years; latest available as of June 2024. State, federal, and local inmates.
This article has lists of US states and US territories by incarceration and correctional supervision rates. There are also counts of inmates for various categories. The data is from the United States Department of Justice and other sources. The incarceration numbers include sentenced and unsentenced inmates from many categories.
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world (which includes pre-trial detainees and sentenced prisoners).[59] As of 2009, 2.3 million people were incarcerated in the United States, including federal and state prisons and local jails, creating an incarceration rate of 793 persons per 100,000 of national population.[59] During 2011, 1.6 million people were incarcerated under the jurisdiction of federal and state authorities.[60] At the end of 2011, 492 persons per 100,000 U.S. residents were incarcerated in federal and state prisons.[60] Of the 1.6 million state and federal prisoners, nearly 1.4 million people were under state jurisdiction, while 215,000 were under federal jurisdiction.[60] Demographically, nearly 1.5 million prisoners were male, and 115,000 were female, while 581,000 prisoners were black, 516,000 were white, and 350,000 were Hispanic.[60]
Among the 1.35 million sentenced state prisoners in 2011, 725,000 people were incarcerated for violent crimes, 250,000 were incarcerated for property crimes, 237,000 people were incarcerated for drug crimes, and 150,000 were incarcerated for other offenses.[60] Of the 200,000 sentenced federal prisoners in 2011, 95,000 were incarcerated for drug crimes, 69,000 were incarcerated for public order offenses, 15,000 were incarcerated for violent crimes, and 11,000 were incarcerated for property crimes.[60]
International comparison
Among 15 high-income countries, the U.S. has both the highest homicide rate, and the largest number of homicides.
The manner in which the United States' crime rate compares to other countries of similar wealth and development depends on the nature of the crime used in the comparison.[62] Overall crime statistic comparisons are difficult to conduct, as the definition and categorization of crimes varies across countries. Thus an agency in a foreign country may include crimes in its annual reports which the U.S. omits, and vice versa.
However, some countries such as Canada have similar definitions of what constitutes a violent crime, and nearly all countries had the same definition of the characteristics that constitutes a homicide.[citation needed] Overall the total crime rate of the United States is higher than developed countries, specifically Europe and East Asia, with South American countries and Russia being the exceptions.[63] Some types of reported property crime in the U.S. survey as lower than in Germany or Canada, yet the homicide rate in the United States is substantially higher as is the prison population.
The difference in homicide rate between the U.S. and other high income countries has widened in recent years especially since the 30% rise in 2020 was not replicated elsewhere, and is also above many developing countries such as China, India and Turkey.[64][circular reference] In the European Union, homicides fell 32% between 2008 and 2019 to 3,875[65] while rising by 4,901 in the U.S. in 2020 alone,[66] leaving the U.S. with a homicide rate 7x higher. In reputable estimates of crime across the globe, the U.S. generally ranks slightly below the middle, roughly 70th lowest or 100th highest.[67][68]
The reported U.S. violent crime rate includes murder, rape and sexual assault, robbery, and assault,[69] whereas the Canadian violent crime rate includes all categories of assault, including Assault level 1 (i.e., assault not using a weapon and not resulting in serious bodily harm).[70][71] A Canadian government study concluded that direct comparison of the two countries' violent crime totals or rates was "inappropriate".[72]
France does not count minor violence such as punching or slapping as assault, whereas Austria, Germany, Finland and the United Kingdom do count such occurrences.[73]
The United Kingdom similarly has different definitions of what constitutes violent crime compared to the United States, making a direct comparison of the overall figure flawed. The FBI's Uniform Crime Reports defines a "violent crime" as one of four specific offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. The British Home Office, by contrast, has a different definition of violent crime, including all "crimes against the person", including simple assaults, all robberies, and all "sexual offenses", as opposed to the FBI, which only counts aggravated assaults and "forcible rapes".[74]
Crime rates are necessarily altered by averaging neighborhood higher or lower local rates over a larger population which includes the entire city. Having small pockets of dense crime may increase a city's average crime rate. It is estimated that violent crime accounts for as much as $2.2 trillion by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, accounting for about 85% of the total cost of crime in the United States.[75]
Police-recorded violent crime rates per 100,000 population[76][77][78][79]
*Australian homicide statistics include murder, and manslaughter (attempted murder is excluded). Murder rate in brackets.
†Australian statistics record only sexual assault, and do not have separate statistics for rape only. Sexual assault is defined to include rape, attempted rape, aggravated sexual assault (assault with a weapon), indecent assault, penetration by objects, forced sexual activity that did not end in penetration and attempts to force a person into sexual activity; but excludes unwanted sexual touching.[82]
#Australian assault statistics calculated using per state/territory statistics, excluding Victoria as assault data is not collected.[77]
^UCR rape statistics do NOT include sexual assault, while the NCVS does, furthermore NCVS define sexual assault to include as well sexual touching with/without force, and verbal threats of rape or sexual assault, as well as rape, attempted rape, and sexual assault that isn't rape.[78][79]
Homicide
2019 Intentional homicide rate per 100,000 residents by state, including District of Columbia, 2019
Violent crime in the United States has been in decline since colonial times. The homicide rate has been estimated to be over 30 per 100,000 people in 1700, dropping to under 20 by 1800, and to under 10 by 1900, though these estimates, particularly the older ones, should be regarded as highly speculative.[2]
According to a 2013 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), between 2005 and 2012[update], the average homicide rate in the U.S. was 4.9 per 100,000 inhabitants compared to the average rate globally, which was 6.2. However, the U.S. had much higher murder rates compared to four other selected "developed countries", which all had average homicide rates of 0.8 per 100,000.[63] In 2004, there were 5.5 homicides for every 100,000 persons, roughly three times as high as Canada (1.9) and six times as high as Germany and Italy (0.9).[84][70]
In 2018, the US murder rate was 5.0 per 100,000, for a total of 15,498 murders.[85]
Country
Singapore
Iceland
Armenia
United States
Moldova
South Sudan
Panama
Homicide rate (per hundred thousand) (international methodology)[63]
0.2
0.5
1.7
5.1
5.2
12
53.1
In the United States, the number of homicides where the victim and offender relationship was undetermined has been increasing since 1999 but has not reached the levels experienced in the early 1990s. In 14% of all murders, the victim and the offender were strangers. Spouses and family members made up about 15% of all victims, about one-third of the victims were acquaintances of the assailant, and the victim and offender relationship was undetermined in over one-third of homicides. Gun involvement in homicides were gang-related homicides which increased after 1980, homicides that occurred during the commission of a felony which increased from 55% in 1985 to 77% in 2005, homicides resulting from arguments which declined to the lowest levels recorded recently, and homicides resulting from other circumstances which remained relatively constant. Because gang killing has become a normal part of inner cities, many including police hold preconceptions about the causes of death in inner cities. When a death is labeled gang-related it lowers the chances that it will be investigated and increases the chances that the perpetrator will remain at large. In addition, victims of gang killings often determine the priority a case will be given by police. Jenkins (1988) argues that many serial murder cases remain unknown to police and that cases involving Black offenders and victims are especially likely to escape official attention.[86]
According to the FBI, "When the race of the offender was known, 53.0 percent were black, 44.7 percent were white, and 2.3 percent were of other races. The race was unknown for 4,132 offenders. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 3). Of the offenders for whom gender was known, 88.2 percent were male."[87] According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, from 1980 to 2008, 84 percent of white homicide victims were killed by white offenders and 93 percent of black homicide victims were killed by black offenders.[46]
Gun homicide rate vs gun ownership rate in developed countriesCivilian guns per capita by country, Small Arms Survey 2017
The United States has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership per capita.[88][89][90] According to the CDC, between 1999 and 2014 there were 185,718 homicides from use of a firearm and 291,571 suicides using a firearm.[91] The U.S. gun homicide rate in 2019 was 18 times the average rate in other developed countries.[92] Despite a significant increase in the sales of firearms since 1994, the US has seen a drop in the annual rate of homicides using a firearm from 7.0 per 100,000 population in 1993 to 3.6 per 100,000 in 2013.[93]
Property crime
Burglary rates, select industrialized countries, U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics
According to a 2004 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, looking at the period from 1981 to 1999, the United States had a lower surveyed residential burglary rate in 1998 than Scotland, England, Canada, the Netherlands, and Australia. The other two countries included in the study, Sweden and Switzerland, had only slightly lower burglary rates. For the first nine years of the study period the same surveys of the public showed only Australia with rates higher than the United States. The authors noted various problems in doing the comparisons including infrequent data points. (The United States performed five surveys from 1995 to 1999 when its rate dipped below Canada's, while Canada ran a single telephone survey during that period for comparison.)[62]
Violence against children from birth to adolescence is considered a "global phenomenon that takes many forms (physical, sexual, emotional), and occurs in many settings, including the home, school, community, care, and justice systems, and over the Internet."[94]
According to a 2001 report from UNICEF, the United States has the highest rate of deaths from child abuse and neglect of any industrialized nation, at 2.4 per 100,000 children; France has 1.4, Japan 1, UK 0.9 and Germany 0.8. According to the US Department of Health, the state of Texas has the highest death rate, at 4.1 per 100,000 children, New York has 2.5, Oregon 1.5 and New Hampshire 0.4.[95] A 2018 report from the Congressional Research Service stated, at the national level, violent crime and homicide rates have increased each year from 2014 to 2016.[96]
In 2016, data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) revealed that approximately 1,750 children died from either abuse or neglect; further, this is a continuing trend with an increasing 7.4% of crimes against children from 2012 to 2016 and these statistics can be compared to a rate of 2.36 children per 100,000 children in the United States general population.[97] In addition, 44.2% of these 2016 statistics are specific to physical abuse towards a child.[97]
A 2016 report from the Child Welfare Information Gateway also showed that parents account for 78% of violence against children in the United States.[98]
Human trafficking is categorized into the following three groups: (1) sex trafficking; (2) sex and labor trafficking; and (3) labor trafficking; In addition, the rate of domestic minor sex trafficking has exponentially increased over the years. Sex trafficking of children also referred to as commercial sexual exploitation of children, is categorized by the following forms: pornography, prostitution, child sex tourism, and child marriage. Profiles of traffickers and types of trafficking differ in the way victims are abducted, how they are treated, and the reason for the abduction.
In the year 2016, the vast majority (84.9%) of traffickers were men, with an average age of 36. Approximately 70% of the offenders were citizens of the United States, and nearly half (49.4%) had minimal or no previous criminal record.[99]
According to a 2017 report from the National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH), out of 10,615 reported survivors of sex trafficking, 2,762 of those survivors were minors.[100]
The U.S. Department of Justice defines Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) as a range of crimes and activities involving the sexual abuse or exploitation of a child for the financial benefit of any person or in exchange for anything of value (including monetary and non-monetary benefits) given or received by any person. These crimes against children, which may occur at any time or place, rob them of their childhood and are extremely detrimental to their emotional and psychological development.[101]
Types of human sex trafficking
In pimp-controlled trafficking, the pimp typically is the only trafficker involved who has full physical, psychological and emotional control over the victim. In gang-controlled trafficking, a large group of people has power over the victim, forcing the victim to take part in illegal or violent tasks for the purpose of obtaining drugs. Another form is called Familial trafficking, which differs the most from the two mentioned above because the victim is typically not abducted. Instead, the victim is forced into being sexually exploited by family members in exchange for something of monetary value, whether that's paying back debt, or obtaining drugs or money. This type of sexual exploitation tends to be the most difficult to detect, yet remains as the most prevalent form of human sex trafficking within the United States.[101]
In 2009, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reported that the average age when children first fall victim to CSEC is between ages 12 and 14. However, this age has become increasingly younger due to exploiters' fear of contracting HIV or AIDS from older victims.[101]
In 2018, the Office of Public Affairs within the Department of Justice released a report from operation "Broken Heart" conducted by Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces, stating that more than 2,300 suspected online child sex offenders were arrested on the following allegations:[102]
produce, distribute, receive and possess child pornography
engage in online enticement of children for sexual purposes
engage in the sex trafficking of children
travel across state lines or to foreign countries and sexually abuse children
A 2011 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics examining the characteristics of suspected human trafficking incidents from 2008-10 noted that roughly 94% of confirmed victims identified as female and over half were 17 years old or younger.[103]
Crime rates vary in the United States depending on the type of community.[104] Within metropolitan statistical areas, both violent and property crime rates are higher than the national average; in cities located outside metropolitan areas, violent crime was lower than the national average, while property crime was higher.[104] For rural areas, both property and violent crime rates were lower than the national average.[104]
Regions
For regional comparisons, the FBI divides the United States into four regions: Northeast, Midwest, South, and West.[105] For 2019, the region with the lowest violent crime rate was the Northeast, with a rate of 292.4 per 100,000 residents, while the region with the highest violent crime rate was the West, with a rate of 413.5 per 100,000.[105] For 2019, the region with the lowest property crime rate was the Northeast, with a rate of 1,350.4 per 100,000 residents, while the region with the highest property crime rate was the West, with a rate of 2,411.7 per 100,000.[105]
Crime rates vary among U.S. states.[106] In 2019, the state with the lowest violent crime rate was Maine, with a rate of 115.2 per 100,000 residents, while the state with the highest violent crime rate was Alaska, with a rate of 867.1 per 100,000.[106] However, the District of Columbia, the U.S. capital district, had a violent crime rate of 1,049.0 per 100,000 in 2019.[106] In 2019, the state with the highest property crime rate was Louisiana, with a rate of 3,162.0 per 100,000, while the state with the lowest property crime rate was Massachusetts, with a rate of 1,179.8 per 100,000.[106] However, Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, had a property crime rate of 702.7 per 100,000 in 2011.[106] According to 2022 FBI Uniform Crime Report, Louisiana's murder rate of 16.1 per 100,000 residents was the highest in the nation (states) for the 34th straight year.[107]
Crime in metropolitan statistical areas tends to be above the national average; however, wide variance exists among and within metropolitan areas.[108] Some responding jurisdictions report very low crime rates, while others have considerably higher rates; these variations are due to many factors beyond population.[108] FBI crime statistics publications strongly caution against comparison rankings of cities, counties, metropolitan statistical areas, and other reporting units without considering factors other than simply population.[108] For 2017[update], the metropolitan statistical area with the highest violent crime rate was the Memphis, Tennessee, metropolitan area, with a rate of 1168.3 per 100,000 residents, while the metropolitan statistical area with the lowest violent crime rate was Bangor, Maine, metropolitan area, with a rate of 65.8.[109]
According to Jeffrey Ross, isolated, underserved urban communities tend to perpetuate criminality and gang violence. In the United States, it is common for crime to be concentrated in a small number of economically disadvantaged areas, which may remain persistently afflicted by crime no matter which ethnic group is living there.[110]
Crime in ten largest metropolitan areas (2017)[109]
↑ "The FBI determined that the agency's data were overreported for some parts of the metro area."[109] And some agency(s) "submitted rape data classified according to the legacy UCR definition."[109]
↑ "The FBI determined that the agency's data were overreported for some parts of the metro area."[109]
↑ "The FBI determined that the agency's data were underreported for some parts of the metro area."[109]
Related Research Articles
Victimology is the study of victimization, including the psychological effects on victims, the relationship between victims and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system—that is, the police and courts, and corrections officials—and the connections between victims and other social groups and institutions, such as the media, businesses, and social movements.
Crime statistics refer to systematic, quantitative results about crime, as opposed to crime news or anecdotes. Notably, crime statistics can be the result of two rather different processes:
The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program compiles official data on crime in the United States, published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). UCR is "a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of nearly 18,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention".
A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, assault, rape and assassination, as well as crimes in which violence is used as a method of coercion or show of force, such as robbery, extortion and terrorism. Violent crimes may, or may not, be committed with weapons. Depending on the jurisdiction, violent crimes may be regarded with varying severities from homicide to harassment.
Crime in Canada is generally considered low overall. Under the Canadian constitution, the power to establish criminal law & rules of investigation is vested in the federal Parliament. The provinces share responsibility for law enforcement, and while the power to prosecute criminal offences is assigned to the federal government, responsibility for prosecutions is delegated to the provinces for most types of criminal offences. Laws and sentencing guidelines are uniform throughout the country, but provinces vary in their level of enforcement.
Prison rape commonly refers to the rape of inmates in prison by other inmates or prison staff. In 2001, Human Rights Watch estimated that at least 4.3 million inmates had been raped while incarcerated in the United States. A United States Department of Justice report, Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, states that "In 2011–12, an estimated 4.0% of state and federal prison inmates and 3.2% of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission to the facility, if less than 12 months." However, advocates dispute the accuracy of the numbers, saying they seem to under-report the real numbers of sexual assaults in prison, especially among juveniles.
In the United States, the relationship between race and crime has been a topic of public controversy and scholarly debate for more than a century. Crime rates vary significantly between racial groups; however, academic research indicates that the over-representation of some racial minorities in the criminal justice system can in part be explained by socioeconomic factors, such as poverty, exposure to poor neighborhoods, poor access to public and early education, and exposure to harmful chemicals and pollution. Racial housing segregation has also been linked to racial disparities in crime rates, as black Americans have historically and to the present been prevented from moving into prosperous low-crime areas through actions of the government and private actors. Various explanations within criminology have been proposed for racial disparities in crime rates, including conflict theory, strain theory, general strain theory, social disorganization theory, macrostructural opportunity theory, social control theory, and subcultural theory.
Sex differences in crime are differences between men and women as the perpetrators or victims of crime. Such studies may belong to fields such as criminology, sociobiology, or feminist studies. Despite the difficulty of interpreting them, crime statistics may provide a way to investigate such a relationship from a gender differences perspective. An observable difference in crime rates between men and women might be due to social and cultural factors, crimes going unreported, or to biological factors. The nature or motive of the crime itself may also require consideration as a factor. Gendered profiling might affect the reported crime rates.
Crime in Australia is managed by various law enforcement bodies, the federal and state-based criminal justice systems and state-based correctional services.
Crime in Washington, D.C., is directly related to the city's demographics, geography, and unique criminal justice system. The District's population reached a peak of 802,178 in 1950. Shortly after that, the city began losing residents, and by 1980 Washington had lost one-quarter of its population. The population loss to the suburbs also created a new demographic pattern, which divided affluent neighborhoods west of Rock Creek Park from the less well-off neighborhoods to the east.
Native American women encounter a disproportionate level of sexual violence from verbal abuse to physical harm, including but not limited to domestic and sexual assaults. Such violations not only result in lasting detrimental effects on the individuals subjected to them but also reverberate throughout their entire community, exacerbating social challenges.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the U.S. Department of Justice is the principal federal agency responsible for measuring crime, criminal victimization, criminal offenders, victims of crime, correlates of crime, and the operation of criminal and civil justice systems at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels. Established on December 27, 1979, BJS collects, analyzes, and publishes data relating to crime in the United States. The agency publishes data regarding statistics gathered from the roughly fifty-thousand agencies, offices, courts, and institutions that together comprise the U.S. justice system.
The Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) is the original name of a unit within the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Training Division at Quantico, Virginia, formed in response to the rise of sexual assault and homicide in the 1970s. The unit was usurped by the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) and renamed the Behavioral Research and Instruction Unit (BRIU) and currently is called the Behavioral Analysis Unit (5) (BAU-5) within the National Center for Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC). The BAU-5 currently works on developing research and then using the evidence-based results to provide training and improve consultation in the behavioral sciences—understanding who criminals are, how they think, why they do what they do—for the FBI and law enforcement communities.
Victimisation is the state or process of being victimised or becoming a victim. The field that studies the process, rates, incidence, effects, and prevalence of victimisation is called victimology.
Rape in the United States is defined by the United States Department of Justice as "Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim." While definitions and terminology of rape vary by jurisdiction in the United States, the FBI revised its definition to eliminate a requirement that the crime involve an element of force.
Crime in Minnesota encompasses a wide range of unlawful activities that occur within the state, regulated by both state and federal laws. While crime rates in Minnesota are generally below the national average, certain areas and types of crime have garnered public attention.
The feminist pathways perspective is a feminist perspective of criminology which suggests victimization throughout the life course is a key risk factor for women's entry into offending.
↑ When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment, Princeton University Press 2009 p. 133 citing Richard Nevin, "How Lead Exposure Relates to Temoral Changes in IQ, Violent Crime and Unwed Pregnancy". Environmental Research 83, 1 (2000): 1–22.
↑ Lehman, Jeffrey; Phelps, Shirelle (2005). West's Encyclopedia of American Law, Volume 10 (2ed.). Detroit: Thomson/Gale. ISBN0787663794.
↑ Donohue, John; Levitt, Steven (March 1, 2000). "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime". Berkeley Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series. 2000 (2): 69. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
↑ Wadsworth, Tim (June 2010). "Is Immigration Responsible for the Crime Drop? An Assessment of the Influence of Immigration on Changes in Violent Crime Between 1990 and 2000". Social Science Quarterly. 91 (2): 531–553. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00706.x.
↑ "Table 1". FBI. Archived from the original on March 20, 2021. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
↑ Heath, Brad (March 13, 2014). "A license to commit crimes". USA Today. pp.1B, 4B. Archived from the original on March 13, 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
↑ Lofstrom, Magnus; Martin, Brandon; Goss, Justin; Hayes, Joseph; Raphael, Steven (December 2018). "New Insights into California Arrests"(PDF). Public Policy Institute of California. p.8. Archived(PDF) from the original on May 2, 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
↑ Comparing crime rates between undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, and native-born US citizens in Texas Michael T. Light, Jingying He, and Jason P. Robey December 7, 2020 https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2014704117
1 2 3 Bureau of Justice Statistics (October 2012). "Criminal Victimization, 2011"(PDF). U.S. Department of Justice. p.1. Archived(PDF) from the original on February 19, 2013. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Bureau of Justice Statistics (December 2012). "Prisoners in 2011"(PDF). U.S. Department of Justice. Archived(PDF) from the original on February 14, 2013. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
↑ ● Homicide data from "Homicide rate UNODC / Homicide rate, 2021". OurWorldInData.org. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2023. Archived from the original on 4 November 2024. ● 2021 Population data from "The World Factbook (2021 Archive) Country Comparisons – Population". U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 4 July 2024. ● List of high-income countries from "High-Income Countries 2024". World Population Review. 2024. Archived from the original on 20 June 2024. World Bank's income categories are updated annually, at the start of each financial year, and are based upon the most recently released data, which tends to be 1.5 years previous.
1 2 Farrington, David P.; Langan, Patrick A.; Tonry, Michael (October 2004). "National Crime Rates Compared". crimereduction.gov.uk. Archived from the original on November 15, 2006. Retrieved September 29, 2006.
1 2 "Crime in the US 2018 Table 16". Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
↑ Killias, Martin (August 1993). "Gun Ownership, Suicide and Homicide: An International Perspective"(PDF). Understanding Crime Experiences of Crime and Crime Control. Acts of the International Conference, Rome, November 18–20, 1992. Vol.Publication No. 49. United Nations Publication, Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI). pp.289–302. Sales No. E.93.III.N.2; NCJ146360. Archived(PDF) from the original on December 27, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
↑ Fox, Kara; Shveda, Krystina; Croker, Natalie; Chacon, Marco (November 26, 2021). "How US gun culture stacks up with the world". CNN. Archived from the original on November 26, 2021. CNN's attribution: Developed countries are defined based on the UN classification, which includes 36 countries. Source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (Global Burden of Disease 2019), Small Arms Survey (Civilian Firearm Holdings 2017)
Patrick Sharkey (2018). Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence. National Geographic Books. ISBN978-0393609608.
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