In 2023, the District of Columbia had the highest reported violent crime rate in the United States, with 1,150.9 violent crimes per 100,000 of the population. Maine had the lowest reported violent crime rate, with 102.5 offenses per 100,000 of the population. Life in the District The District of Columbia has seen a fluctuating population over the past few decades. Its population decreased throughout the 1990s, when its crime rate was at its peak, but has been steadily recovering since then. While unemployment in the District has also been falling, it still has had a high poverty rate in recent years. The gentrification of certain areas within Washington, D.C. over the past few years has made the contrast between rich and poor even greater and is also pushing crime out into the Maryland and Virginia suburbs around the District. Law enforcement in the U.S. Crime in the U.S. is trending downwards compared to years past, despite Americans feeling that crime is a problem in their country. In addition, the number of full-time law enforcement officers in the U.S. has increased recently, who, in keeping with the lower rate of crime, have also made fewer arrests than in years past.

To estimate national trends of crime, the FBI collects crime reports from law enforcement agencies across the country. In 2022, Delaware, the District of Columbia, and Oklahoma had perfect participation rates, with 100 percent of law enforcement agencies reporting crime data to the FBI in those states. In contrast, the state of Florida had the lowest share of law enforcement agencies who reported crime data to the FBI in the United States, at *** percent. An unreliable source? Along with being the principal investigative agency of the U.S. federal government, the FBI is also in charge of tracking crimes committed in the United States. In recent years, however, the FBI made significant changes to their crime reporting system, requiring a more detailed input on how agencies report their data. Consequently, less crime data has been reported and the FBI has come under criticism as an unreliable source on crime in the United States. In 2022, the FBI was found to rank low on trustworthiness for Americans when compared to other government agencies, further demonstrating the need for transparent and accurate data. Importance of crime rates As crime and policing data can help to analyze emerging issues and policy responses, the inaccuracy of the FBI’s crime reporting system may lead to misinformation which could be used to impact elections and the beliefs of the American public. In addition, the lack of crime data from Republican states such as Florida may prove problematic as 78 percent of Republicans said that crime was a very important issue for them in midterm elections.

Investigator(s): Federal Bureau of Investigation Since 1930, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has compiled the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) to serve as periodic nationwide assessments of reported crimes not available elsewhere in the criminal justice system. With the 1977 data, the title was expanded to Uniform Crime Reporting Program Data. Each year, participating law enforcement agencies contribute reports to the FBI either directly or through their state reporting programs. ICPSR archives the UCR data as five separate components: (1) summary data, (2) county-level data, (3) incident-level data (National Incident-Based Reporting System [NIBRS]), (4) hate crime data, and (5) various, mostly nonrecurring, data collections. Summary data are reported in four types of files: (a) Offenses Known and Clearances by Arrest, (b) Property Stolen and Recovered, (c) Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR), and (d) Police Employee (LEOKA) Data (Law Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted). The county-level data provide counts of arrests and offenses aggregated to the county level. County populations are also reported. In the late 1970s, new ways to look at crime were studied. The UCR program was subsequently expanded to capture incident-level data with the implementation of the National Incident-Based Reporting System. The NIBRS data focus on various aspects of a crime incident. The gathering of hate crime data by the UCR program was begun in 1990. Hate crimes are defined as crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. In September 1994, disabilities, both physical and mental, were added to the list. The fifth component of ICPSR's UCR holdings is comprised of various collections, many of which are nonrecurring and prepared by individual researchers. These collections go beyond the scope of the standard UCR collections provided by the FBI, either by including data for a range of years or by focusing on other aspects of analysis. NACJD has produced resource guides on UCR and on NIBRS data.

The FBI Uniform Crime report contains a compilation of the volume and rate of violent and property crime offenses for the nation and by state.

Overview, Uniform Crime Report,Data Quality and Methodology, Glossary, Offense Glossary, State Data Notes

In 2023, ********* property and violent crimes were reported in California - the most out of any state. Texas followed behind, with ******* reported crimes. However, as the FBI estimates national trends of crime by asking law enforcement agencies across the country to self-report their crime data, the reported number of crimes committed in each state is dependent upon whether they provided the information to the Bureau's crime reporting system. For example, the state of Florida reported only *** percent of their crime data in 2022, raising the question of whether Florida has again failed to report the majority of their crimes in 2023 and if they should be higher up on this list. As many states have neglected to report all of their crime data to the FBI in the last few years, the total numbers may not accurately represent the number of crimes committed in each state.

The Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) collects crime reports from more than 500 New York State police and sheriffs' departments. DCJS compiles these reports as New York's official crime statistics and submits them to the FBI under the National Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. UCR uses standard offense definitions to count crime in localities across America regardless of variations in crime laws from state to state. In New York State, law enforcement agencies use the UCR system to report their monthly crime totals to DCJS. The UCR reporting system collects information on seven crimes classified as Index offenses which are most commonly used to gauge overall crime volume. These include the violent crimes of murder/non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault; and the property crimes of burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Police agencies may experience reporting problems that preclude accurate or complete reporting. The counts represent only crimes reported to the police but not total crimes that occurred. DCJS posts preliminary data in the spring and final data in the fall.

This dataset contains county-level totals for the years 2002-2014 for eight types of crime: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. These crimes are classed as Part I criminal offenses by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in their Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. Each record in the dataset represents the total of each type of criminal offense reported in (or, in the case of missing data, attributed to) the county in a given year.

Alaska crime data from 2000 to present from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. Information includes data on both violent and property crime.The UCR Program's primary objective is to generate reliable information for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management; over the years, however, the data have become one of the country’s leading social indicators. The program has been the starting place for law enforcement executives, students of criminal justice, researchers, members of the media, and the public at large seeking information on crime in the nation. The program was conceived in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to meet the need for reliable uniform crime statistics for the nation. In 1930, the FBI was tasked with collecting, publishing, and archiving those statistics.Source: US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)This data has been visualized in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) format and is provided as a service in the DCRA Information Portal by the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development Division of Community and Regional Affairs (SOA DCCED DCRA), Research and Analysis section. SOA DCCED DCRA Research and Analysis is not the authoritative source for this data. For more information and for questions about this data, see: FBI UCR ProgramOffenses Known to Law Enforcement, by State by City, 2017 The FBI collects these data through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. Important note about rape data In 2013, the FBI’s UCR Program initiated the collection of rape data under a revised definition within the Summary Based Reporting System. The term “forcible” was removed from the offense name, and the definition was changed to “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.” In 2016, the FBI Director approved the recommendation to discontinue the reporting of rape data using the UCR legacy definition beginning in 2017. General comment This table provides the volume of violent crime (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) and property crime (burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft) as reported by city and town law enforcement agencies (listed alphabetically by state) that contributed data to the UCR Program. (Note: Arson is not included in the property crime total in this table; however, if complete arson data were provided, it will appear in the arson column.) Caution against ranking Readers should take into consideration relevant factors in addition to an area’s crime statistics when making any valid comparisons of crime among different locales. UCR Statistics: Their Proper Use provides more details. Methodology The data used in creating this table were from all city and town law enforcement agencies submitting 12 months of complete offense data for 2017. Rape figures, and violent crime, which rape is a part, will not be published in this table for agencies submitting rape using the UCR legacy rape definition. The rape figures, and violent crime, which rape is a part, published in this table are from only those agencies using the UCR revised rape definition as well as converted data from agencies that reported data for rape, sodomy, and sexual assault with an object via NIBRS. The FBI does not publish arson data unless it receives data from either the agency or the state for all 12 months of the calendar year. When the FBI determines that an agency’s data collection methodology does not comply with national UCR guidelines, the figure(s) for that agency’s offense(s) will not be included in the table, and the discrepancy will be explained in a footnote. Population estimation For the 2017 population estimates used in this table, the FBI computed individual rates of growth from one year to the next for every city/town and county using 2010 decennial population counts and 2011 through 2016 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Each agency’s rates of growth were averaged; that average was then applied and added to its 2016 Census population estimate to derive the agency’s 2017 population estimate.

An annual publication in which the FBI compiles the volume and rate of violent and property crime offenses for the nation and by state. Individual law enforcement agency data are also provided for those contributors supplying 12 months of complete offense data.

This dataset shows City level data for all over the United States, and has various attributes for different crimes. Cities are shown as Latitude and longitude points. Attributes include murder, manslaughter, violent crimes, arson, motor vehicle theft, property crimes, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, theft, and rape. Data was provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Source: FBI URL: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_08.html

The Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) collects crime reports from more than 500 New York State police and sheriffs’ departments. DCJS compiles these reports as New York’s official crime statistics and submits them to the FBI under the National Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. UCR uses standard offense definitions to count crime in localities across America regardless of variations in crime laws from state to state. In New York State, law enforcement agencies use the UCR system to report their monthly crime totals to DCJS. The UCR reporting system collects information on seven crimes classified as Index offenses which are most commonly used to gauge overall crime volume. These include the violent crimes of murder/non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault; and the property crimes of burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Police agencies may experience reporting problems that preclude accurate or complete reporting. The counts represent only crimes reported to the police but not total crimes that occurred.

Context

In 1975, the United States set a new record with 240,593 prisoners incarcerated by state or federal agencies. The United States achieved new record totals during each of the next 34 years. Today, there are over 1,500,000 prisoners in the United States. Over one quarter of the world's entire population of prisoners is located in the United States.

The U.S. Education deparment reports state and local government expenditures on prisons (and jails - not reflected in this dataset) have increased about three times as fast as spending on elementary and secondary education during this time period. Does this significant investment into imprisonment improve public safety? This dataset brings together crime and incarceration statistics to help researchers explore this relationship.

Content

The Bureau of Justice Statistics administers the National Prisoners Statistics Program (NPS), an annual data collection effort that began in response to a 1926 congressional mandate. The population statistics reflect each state's prisoner population as of December 31 for the recorded year. Prisoners listed under federal jurisdiction are incarcerated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) has served as the FBI's primary national data collection tool since a 1930 congressional mandate directed the Attorney General to "acquire, collect, classify, and preserve identification, criminal identification, crime, and other records." The FBI collects this information voluntarily submitted by local, state, and fedral law enforcement agencies. Some U.S. municipalities choose not to participate fully in the program. The crimes_estimated field indicates cases where the FBI estimated state totals due to lack of participation by some municipalities within a state. The crime_reporting_change field reflects instances when states' reporting standards change. For more information on the responsible use of this dataset, please see Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics: Their Proper Use

Acknowledgements

State and Federal prisoner population figures published by Bureau of Justice Statistics.

State crime and population statistics published by the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. https://www.ucrdatatool.gov/Search/Crime/State/RunCrimeStatebyState.cfm

Banner Photo by Oscar Söderlund on Unsplash

Inspiration

What is the relationship between incarceration rates and crime rates? Does mass incarceration improve public safety? See below for some recent statements from U.S. politicians related to the relationship between crime and incarceration. Are the data consistent with any of these statements?

"There is no better way to reduce crime than to identify, target, and incapacitate those hardened criminals... we cannot incapacitate these criminals unless we build sufficient prison and jail space to house them. " - Nominee for 85th U.S. Attorney General William Barr, [October 28, 1992][13]

"Violent crime has declined since the 1980s because mandatory minimums adopted then locked up violent criminals." - Senator Tom Cotton, August 15, 2018

"You may assume mass incarceration exists because people are committing more crimes. But that is not true... The incredibly costly reality is that prisons in our nation continue to grow irrespective of crime rates. It is a bureaucracy that has been expanding independent of our security or safety." - Senator Cory Booker, Apr 28, 2015

"It is far from clear whether this dramatic increase in incarceration for drug crimes has had enough of an effect on property and violent crime rates to justify the human toll of more incarceration." - Senator Ted Cruz, Apr 27, 2015

"For several decades, tough laws and long sentences have created the illusion that public safety is best served when we treat all offenders the same way: arrest, convict, incarcerate..." - Senator Kamala Harris, [Apr 27, 2015][11]

"We've got some space to put some people! We need to reverse a trend that suggested that criminals won't be confronted seriously with their crimes" - 84th U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, [March 15, 2018][12]

...

The Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) collects crime reports from more than 500 New York State police and sheriffs’ departments. DCJS compiles these reports as New York’s official crime statistics and submits them to the FBI under the National Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. UCR uses standard offense definitions to count crime in localities across America regardless of variations in crime laws from state to state. In New York State, law enforcement agencies use the UCR system to report their monthly crime totals to DCJS. The UCR reporting system collects information on seven crimes classified as Index offenses which are most commonly used to gauge overall crime volume. These include the violent crimes of murder/non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault; and the property crimes of burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Firearm counts are derived from taking the number of violent crimes which involve a firearm. Population data are provided every year by the FBI, based on US Census information. Police agencies may experience reporting problems that preclude accurate or complete reporting. The counts represent only crimes reported to the police but not total crimes that occurred. DCJS posts preliminary data in the spring and final data in the fall.

The Hate Crime Statistics dataset provides annual statistics on the number of incidents, offenses, victims, and offenders in reported crimes that are motivated in whole, or in part, by an offender’s bias against the victim’s perceived race, gender, gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. Hate crime data is captured by indicating the element of bias present in offenses already being reported to the UCR Program.

All law enforcement agencies, whether they submit Summary Reporting System (SRS) or National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) reports, can contribute hate crime data to the UCR Program using forms specified to collect such information.

Please see the UCR resources provided by the FBI for for more information on hate crime. Download this dataset to see totals for hate crimes across the country from 1991–2014.

In 2023, the property crime rate in the District of Columbia was 4,307.4 reported property crimes per 100,000 residents. New Mexico, Washington, Colorado and Louisiana rounded out the top five states with the highest rates of property crime in that year.

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is a part of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR), administered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In the late 1970s, the law enforcement community called for a thorough evaluative study of the UCR with the objective of recommending an expanded and enhanced UCR program to meet law enforcement needs into the 21st century. The FBI fully concurred with the need for an updated program to meet contemporary needs and provided its support, formulating a comprehensive redesign effort. Following a multiyear study, a "Blueprint for the Future of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program" was developed. Using the "Blueprint" and in consultation with local and state law enforcement executives, the FBI formulated new guidelines for the Uniform Crime Reports. The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is being implemented to meet these guidelines. NIBRS data are archived at ICPSR as 13 separate data files, which may be merged by using linkage variables. The data focus on a variety of aspects of a crime incident. Part 4, Administrative Segment, offers data on the incident itself (date and time). Each crime incident is delineated by one administrative segment record. Also provided are Part 5, Offense Segment (offense type, location, weapon use, and bias motivation), Part 6, Property Segment (type of property loss, property description, property value, drug type and quantity), Part 7, Victim Segment (age, sex, race, ethnicity, and injuries), Part 8, Offender Segment (age, sex, and race), and Part 9, Arrestee Segment (arrest date, age, sex, race, and weapon use). The Batch Header Segment (Parts 1-3) separates and identifies individual police agencies by Originating Agency Identifier (ORI). Batch Header information, which is contained on three records for each ORI, includes agency name, geographic location, and population of the area. Part 10, Group B Arrest Report Segment, includes arrestee data for Group B crimes. Window Segments files (Parts 11-13) pertain to incidents for which the complete Group A Incident Report was not submitted to the FBI. In general, a Window Segment record will be generated if the incident occurred prior to January 1 of the previous year or if the incident occurred prior to when the agency started NIBRS reporting. As with UCR, participation in NIBRS is voluntary on the part of law enforcement agencies. The data are not a representative sample of crime in the United States. For 1995, 9 states, fully or partially participating in NIBRS, were included in the dataset.

National or state offense totals are based on data from all reporting agencies and estimates for unreported areas. Rates are the number of reported offenses per 100,000 population
Sources: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, prepared by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
Date of download: Sep 18 2013

In response to a growing concern about hate crimes, the United States Congress enacted the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990. The Act requires the attorney general to establish guidelines and collect, as part of the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, data "about crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, including where appropriate the crimes of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, aggravated assault, simple assault, intimidation, arson, and destruction, damage or vandalism of property." Hate crime data collection was required by the Act to begin in calendar year 1990 and to continue for four successive years. In September 1994, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act amended the Hate Crime Statistics Act to add disabilities, both physical and mental, as factors that could be considered a basis for hate crimes. Although the Act originally mandated data collection for five years, the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996 amended the collection duration "for each calendar year," making hate crime statistics a permanent addition to the UCR program. As with the other UCR data, law enforcement agencies contribute reports either directly or through their state reporting programs. Information contained in the data includes number of victims and offenders involved in each hate crime incident, type of victims, bias motivation, offense type, and location type.

This dataset was retrieved from the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation Criminal Justice Information Services Division website on February 29, 2008. "This table provides arrest data for 29 separate UCR offenses for each state for 2006". The table provides data for total arrests by class of crime. "The FBI collects these data through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program". Estimated population was added for each state for 2006 that appeared on Table 5 of the data from 2006. Please see the Data Declaration for further information on the data set. Values of -1 represent no value.

A data extract of crime in Connecticut, by reporting agency from Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics - UCR Data Online. The UCR Program collects statistics on violent crime (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) and property crime (burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft). Notes: When data are unavailable, the cells are blank or the year is not presented. Variations in population coverage and reporting practices may cause differences in reporting from year to year. (See definitions) MSA and non-MSA county populations are not available. Rates are the number of reported offenses per 100,000 population. Crime rates are not available for agencies that report data for less than 12 months of a year. Sources: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports, prepared by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data