The rate of civilians killed by police in the Venezuela is far higher than in comparable developed democratic countries, with 1,830 people killed by police per 10 million residents in 2025. This compares to 69 deaths per 10 million residents in Canada, and seven in Australia - perhaps the two most comparable countries to the United States in many respects. Country with the most prisoners The El Salvador is the country with the largest number of prisoners per capita. This suggests either that they have the most criminals, or that the police make more arrests and judges hand down jail as a more frequent punishment. Costa Rica has the highest burglary rate, seeing almost three times as many break-ins as in the United States, for example. Does weapon ownership contribute to higher number of violent attacks? Other factors may also be at play. One such factor may be gun ownership. If police shootings are more likely to happen in states with a higher number of registered weapons, one could argue that the threat of violence against police makes officers more likely to utilize deadly force. However, countries like Canada also have a high number of individual firearms licenses, indicating that this factor likely does not explain the entire effect. Social factors may also influence this statistic, such as the use of the death penalty. Still, each fatal incident is complex, and the full situation surrounding each involves many factors, meaning that a simple solution is unlikely.

Since the 1780s, over 25,000 United States law enforcement officers have died while on active duty, or due to injuries and illnesses obtained while on duty. Gunfire is responsible for over half of all total law enforcement deaths recorded, particularly before the 1930s. From this point on, the total share of gunfire deaths has decreased significantly, mostly due to the increase in vehicle or health related deaths, although gunfire has remained the most common individual cause of death in almost every year. Gunfire deaths These deaths rose steadily after the Civil War, and peaked at over 200 annual deaths during the 1920s, due to the increase in criminal activity during prohibition. Because of this, the National Firearms Act of 1934 was introduced in an attempt to reduce gun-related crime, by requiring the registration of any transfer of ownership and imposing a tax on gun manufacturers and distributors. After Prohibition's end and the introduction of these measures, annual law enforcement deaths from gunfire have been well below 100 in almost every year, except for a brief spike in the early 1970s, during the crime wave that began in the 1960s and the beginning of the "War on Drugs". Overall, gunfire deaths of law enforcement have fallen since the 1970s, reaching a low of just 34 deaths in 2013. In contrast, the total number of people killed by police shootings has consistently been above one thousand for most of the past decade.

Increase in health-related deaths

The majority of non-gunfire deaths are a result of vehicle-related accidents, and the number of crashes and accidents rose throughout the 20th century in line with the increase in car ownership. However, the number of deaths from heart attacks and job-related illness has also risen over time, due to the aging of the population and increasingly unhealthy lifestyle trends across the country. In recent decades, additional health issues have emerged that have had a disproportionate impact on law enforcement. In 2001, 72 officers died as a result of the September 11th terrorist attacks, and over 350 additional deaths have been attributed to the adverse health effects (primarily respiratory illnesses) sustained by first responders from law enforcement. From 2020-2022, COVID-19 became the largest single cause of law enforcement deaths. Figures relate to cases where the individual contracted COVID-19 while on duty, and highlights the increased exposure to the virus faced by those considered to be frontline or essential workers. This number is likely to fall in the future as infection rates fall and newer strains of the virus are less lethal.

The killing of Tyre Nichols in January 2023 by Memphis Police Officers has reignited debates about police brutality in the United States. Between 2013 and 2024, over 1,000 people have been killed by police every year. Some of the most infamous examples include the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the shooting of Breonna Taylor earlier that year. Within the provided time period, the most people killed by police in the United States was in 2024, at 1,375 people. Police Violence in the U.S. Police violence is defined as any instance where a police officer’s use of force results in a civilian’s death, regardless of whether it is considered justified by the law. While many people killed by police in the U.S. were shot, other causes of death have included tasers, vehicles, and physical restraints or beatings. In the United States, the rate of police shootings is much higher for Black Americans than it is for any other ethnicity, and recent incidents of police killing unarmed Black men and women in the United States have led to widespread protests against police brutality, particularly towards communities of color. America’s Persistent Police Problem Despite increasing visibility surrounding police violence in recent years, police killings have continued to occur in the United States at a consistently high rate. In comparison to other countries, police in the U.S. have killed people at a rate three times higher than police in Canada and 60 times the rate of police in England. While U.S. police have killed people in almost all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, New Mexico was reported to have the highest rate of people killed by the police in the United States, with 8.03 people per million inhabitants killed by police.

Sadly, the trend of fatal police shootings in the United States seems to only be increasing, with a total 1,173 civilians having been shot, 248 of whom were Black, as of December 2024. In 2023, there were 1,164 fatal police shootings. Additionally, the rate of fatal police shootings among Black Americans was much higher than that for any other ethnicity, standing at 6.1 fatal shootings per million of the population per year between 2015 and 2024. Police brutality in the U.S. In recent years, particularly since the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, police brutality has become a hot button issue in the United States. The number of homicides committed by police in the United States is often compared to those in countries such as England, where the number is significantly lower. Black Lives Matter The Black Lives Matter Movement, formed in 2013, has been a vocal part of the movement against police brutality in the U.S. by organizing “die-ins”, marches, and demonstrations in response to the killings of black men and women by police. While Black Lives Matter has become a controversial movement within the U.S., it has brought more attention to the number and frequency of police shootings of civilians.

The rate of fatal police shootings in the United States shows large differences based on ethnicity. Among Black Americans, the rate of fatal police shootings between 2015 and December 2024 stood at 6.1 per million of the population per year, while for white Americans, the rate stood at 2.4 fatal police shootings per million of the population per year. Police brutality in the United States Police brutality is a major issue in the United States, but recently saw a spike in online awareness and protests following the murder of George Floyd, an African American who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Just a few months before, Breonna Taylor was fatally shot in her apartment when Louisville police officers forced entry into her apartment. Despite the repeated fatal police shootings across the country, police accountability has not been adequate according to many Americans. A majority of Black Americans thought that police officers were not held accountable for their misconduct, while less than half of White Americans thought the same. Political opinions Not only are there differences in opinion between ethnicities on police brutality, but there are also major differences between political parties. A majority of Democrats in the United States thought that police officers were not held accountable for their misconduct, while a majority of Republicans that they were held accountable. Despite opposing views on police accountability, both Democrats and Republicans agree that police should be required to be trained in nonviolent alternatives to deadly force.

The dataset that I have created through web scraping using BeautifulSoup library in Python provides a comprehensive overview of the legality of firearms across various countries. It contains detailed information on the laws and regulations governing firearms possession, use, and ownership. The dataset also includes data on the number of deaths resulting from firearm incidents, including suicides, accidents, and police shootings. In addition, the dataset provides insights into the number of firearms owned by citizens, whether they are registered or unregistered. The information is compiled from reliable sources such as Wikipedia, Wisevoter, GunPolicy, and WorldPopulationReview, ensuring that the dataset is both comprehensive and accurate. This dataset is an invaluable resource for researchers, policymakers, and others who are interested in studying the prevalence and impact of firearms on society. With its comprehensive coverage of firearm laws and incidents across various countries, this dataset offers valuable insights into the complex issue of gun control and can be used to inform policy decisions aimed at reducing the negative impact of firearms on individuals and communities.

The dataset I have created can be used for various technical applications such as machine learning and data analytics. For example, researchers and developers can use this dataset to train machine learning algorithms to identify patterns and correlations between firearm laws and incidents. This can help in developing predictive models to forecast firearm-related incidents and aid in policymaking. Data analytics techniques can also be applied to the dataset to identify trends and patterns in the data, helping researchers to gain a better understanding of the complex issues surrounding firearms. Overall, the dataset I have created offers a wealth of information on firearms laws and incidents, and its potential applications extend beyond research to include policy and decision-making in various fields.

*******Links used:******* - Wikipedia - WiseVoter - GunPolicy - WorldPopulationReview

In 2023/24, the police in England and Wales fatally shot two people, compared with three in the previous reporting year, and six in 2016/17. During the same reporting year, the police used firearms twice, compared with ten times in 2022/23. In general, the police in England and Wales and in the rest of the UK do not have a tradition of carrying firearms, with the country having some of the strictest gun laws in the world. In 2023/24, out of around 147,746 police officers, just 5,861 were licensed to carry firearms in England and Wales. Comparisons with the United States Among developed economies, the United States is something of an outlier when it comes to police shootings. In 2024, it is estimated that the police in the United States fatally shot 1,173 people. There are also significant disparities based on a person's ethnicity. Between 2015 and March 2024, the rate of fatal police shootings among Black Americans was 6.1 per one million people, 2.7 per million people for Hispanic Americans and 2.4 per million people for white Americans. Gun violence overall is also far more prevalent in the United States, with 42 percent of American households owning a firearm as of 2023. Gun homicides rare in England and Wales Of the 583 homicides that took place in England and Wales in 2023/24, just 22 were committed by a person using a firearm. By far the most common method of killing was using a knife or other sharp instrument, at 262 homicides, or around 46 percent of them. Compared with twenty years ago, homicides in England and Wales have declined, falling from 1,047 in 2002/03, to just 533 in 2014/15. After this point, annual homicides rose, and by 2016/17 there were more than 700 homicides recorded in England and Wales. Although there have been some fluctuations, particularly during 2020/21 at the height of COVID-19 lockdowns.

Number, percentage and rate (per 100,000 population) of homicide victims, by racialized identity group (total, by racialized identity group; racialized identity group; South Asian; Chinese; Black; Filipino; Arab; Latin American; Southeast Asian; West Asian; Korean; Japanese; other racialized identity group; multiple racialized identity; racialized identity, but racialized identity group is unknown; rest of the population; unknown racialized identity group), gender (all genders; male; female; gender unknown) and region (Canada; Atlantic region; Quebec; Ontario; Prairies region; British Columbia; territories), 2019 to 2024.

As of November 17, New Mexico had the highest rate of people killed by police out of all U.S. states in 2024, with ***** people per million inhabitants killed by police in that time period, followed by Wyoming with ***** people per million inhabitants killed by police.

The road accident data are taken from the CARE database (CARE - Community database on Accidents on the Roads in Europe), which is entirely managed by the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE). The legal basis for CARE is the Council Decision on the creation of a Community database on road accidents (93/704/EC, OJ No L329 of 30 December 1993, pp. 63-65).

CARE is a Community database on road accidents resulting in death or injury (no statistics on damage-only accidents). The tables included in Eurobase are limited to the number of fatalities, as the definition of injuries is not entirely harmonised across the Member States.

The major difference between CARE and most other existing international databases is the high level of disaggregation, i.e. CARE results are based on detailed data on individual accidents as collected by the Member States. This database at Community level would make it possible to identify and quantify road safety problems, evaluate the efficiency of road safety measures, determine the relevance of Community actions and facilitate the exchange of experience in this field.

National data sets are integrated into the CARE database in their original national structure and definitions, with confidential data blanked out. The Commission provides a framework of transformation rules allowing CARE to provide compatible data.

The following data are available:

• Persons killed in road accidents by sex

• Persons killed in road accidents by category of persons involved

• Persons killed in road accidents by age

• Persons killed in road accidents by type of road

• Persons killed in road accidents by type of vehicle

• Road accidents by NUTS 3 regions

For road accident fatalities by type of road, and notably the classification of accidents on motorways, which may also occur in urban areas, please note the following definitions:

Rural: Outside urban area & no motorway/unknown

Urban: Inside urban area & no motorway/unknown

Motorway: Outside urban area/Unknown area & motorway

Unknown: Urban area unknown & motorway unknown.

Injury Road Accident (referred as Accident) concerns an incident on a public road involving at least one moving vehicle and at least one casualty (person injured or killed). It is noted, however, that the definition of 'injury' varies considerably among the various EU countries, thus affecting the reliability of cross-country comparisons.

Fatally injured persons are those killed immediately or dying within 30 days of a road accident, as a result of injury accident, excluding suicides.

Several countries, apply correction coefficients in order to respect what is commonly called 'death at 30 days' principle. This principle means that persons dying up to 30 days after the occurrence of the accident are indeed counted as road accident fatalities. After these 30 days, the reason for dying might be declared differently. Certain countries have used different concepts in the past, making it necessary to apply a correction coefficient. This may result in data containing decimals. As the measurement unit is the physical person, it has been preferred to display the data without decimals by applying rounding. Totals may, therefore, appear slightly different.

The countries applying correction factors are Spain (from 1997 to 2010), France (from 1994 to 2004), Italy (up to 1998) and Portugal (from 1998 to 2009).

Further information on the correction factors applied are available under point 8.1 of the CADaS Reference Guide available under: Road safety transport document.

For road accident fatalities by type of vehicle, please note that the position OTH (‘Other’) in the dimension VEHICLE corresponds to pedestrians.

More information can be obtained in Part 2 Road Information of the document with the CARE database variable description. The link to this document is given in Section 3.2.

For the Netherlands, the number of fatalities registered by the police is under-reported and equates to around 85% of the total number of fatalities published nationally. In 2023, the overall total was 684, while the police-based figure in the CARE database was 608.

The road accident data are taken from the CARE database (CARE - Community database on Accidents on the Roads in Europe), which is entirely managed by the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE). The legal basis for CARE is the Council Decision on the creation of a Community database on road accidents (93/704/EC, OJ No L329 of 30 December 1993, pp. 63-65).

CARE is a Community database on road accidents resulting in death or injury (no statistics on damage-only accidents). The tables included in Eurobase are limited to the number of fatalities, as the definition of injuries is not entirely harmonised across the Member States.

The major difference between CARE and most other existing international databases is the high level of disaggregation, i.e. CARE results are based on detailed data on individual accidents as collected by the Member States. This database at Community level would make it possible to identify and quantify road safety problems, evaluate the efficiency of road safety measures, determine the relevance of Community actions and facilitate the exchange of experience in this field.

National data sets are integrated into the CARE database in their original national structure and definitions, with confidential data blanked out. The Commission provides a framework of transformation rules allowing CARE to provide compatible data.

The following data are available:

• Persons killed in road accidents by sex

• Persons killed in road accidents by category of persons involved

• Persons killed in road accidents by age

• Persons killed in road accidents by type of road

• Persons killed in road accidents by type of vehicle

• Road accidents by NUTS 3 regions

For road accident fatalities by type of road, and notably the classification of accidents on motorways, which may also occur in urban areas, please note the following definitions:

Rural: Outside urban area & no motorway/unknown

Urban: Inside urban area & no motorway/unknown

Motorway: Outside urban area/Unknown area & motorway

Unknown: Urban area unknown & motorway unknown.

Injury Road Accident (referred as Accident) concerns an incident on a public road involving at least one moving vehicle and at least one casualty (person injured or killed). It is noted, however, that the definition of 'injury' varies considerably among the various EU countries, thus affecting the reliability of cross-country comparisons.

Fatally injured persons are those killed immediately or dying within 30 days of a road accident, as a result of injury accident, excluding suicides.

Several countries, apply correction coefficients in order to respect what is commonly called 'death at 30 days' principle. This principle means that persons dying up to 30 days after the occurrence of the accident are indeed counted as road accident fatalities. After these 30 days, the reason for dying might be declared differently. Certain countries have used different concepts in the past, making it necessary to apply a correction coefficient. This may result in data containing decimals. As the measurement unit is the physical person, it has been preferred to display the data without decimals by applying rounding. Totals may, therefore, appear slightly different.

The countries applying correction factors are Spain (from 1997 to 2010), France (from 1994 to 2004), Italy (up to 1998) and Portugal (from 1998 to 2009).

Further information on the correction factors applied are available under point 8.1 of the CADaS Reference Guide available under: Road safety transport document.

For road accident fatalities by type of vehicle, please note that the position OTH (‘Other’) in the dimension VEHICLE corresponds to pedestrians.

More information can be obtained in Part 2 Road Information of the document with the CARE database variable description. The link to this document is given in Section 3.2.

For the Netherlands, the number of fatalities registered by the police is under-reported and equates to around 85% of the total number of fatalities published nationally. In 2023, the overall total was 684, while the police-based figure in the CARE database was 608.

In 2024, the number of civilians killed by the police in Brazil decreased approximately by **** percent compared to the previous year. In 2023, ***** people were killed in the South American country. In 2024, Bahia was the Brazilian state with the highest number of killings reported.

The road accident data are taken from the CARE database (CARE - Community database on Accidents on the Roads in Europe), which is entirely managed by the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE). The legal basis for CARE is the Council Decision on the creation of a Community database on road accidents (93/704/EC, OJ No L329 of 30 December 1993, pp. 63-65).

CARE is a Community database on road accidents resulting in death or injury (no statistics on damage-only accidents). The tables included in Eurobase are limited to the number of fatalities, as the definition of injuries is not entirely harmonised across the Member States.

The major difference between CARE and most other existing international databases is the high level of disaggregation, i.e. CARE results are based on detailed data on individual accidents as collected by the Member States. This database at Community level would make it possible to identify and quantify road safety problems, evaluate the efficiency of road safety measures, determine the relevance of Community actions and facilitate the exchange of experience in this field.

National data sets are integrated into the CARE database in their original national structure and definitions, with confidential data blanked out. The Commission provides a framework of transformation rules allowing CARE to provide compatible data.

The following data are available:

• Persons killed in road accidents by sex

• Persons killed in road accidents by category of persons involved

• Persons killed in road accidents by age

• Persons killed in road accidents by type of road

• Persons killed in road accidents by type of vehicle

• Road accidents by NUTS 3 regions

For road accident fatalities by type of road, and notably the classification of accidents on motorways, which may also occur in urban areas, please note the following definitions:

Rural: Outside urban area & no motorway/unknown

Urban: Inside urban area & no motorway/unknown

Motorway: Outside urban area/Unknown area & motorway

Unknown: Urban area unknown & motorway unknown.

Injury Road Accident (referred as Accident) concerns an incident on a public road involving at least one moving vehicle and at least one casualty (person injured or killed). It is noted, however, that the definition of 'injury' varies considerably among the various EU countries, thus affecting the reliability of cross-country comparisons.

Fatally injured persons are those killed immediately or dying within 30 days of a road accident, as a result of injury accident, excluding suicides.

Several countries, apply correction coefficients in order to respect what is commonly called 'death at 30 days' principle. This principle means that persons dying up to 30 days after the occurrence of the accident are indeed counted as road accident fatalities. After these 30 days, the reason for dying might be declared differently. Certain countries have used different concepts in the past, making it necessary to apply a correction coefficient. This may result in data containing decimals. As the measurement unit is the physical person, it has been preferred to display the data without decimals by applying rounding. Totals may, therefore, appear slightly different.

The countries applying correction factors are Spain (from 1997 to 2010), France (from 1994 to 2004), Italy (up to 1998) and Portugal (from 1998 to 2009).

Further information on the correction factors applied are available under point 8.1 of the CADaS Reference Guide available under: Road safety transport document.

For road accident fatalities by type of vehicle, please note that the position OTH (‘Other’) in the dimension VEHICLE corresponds to pedestrians.

More information can be obtained in Part 2 Road Information of the document with the CARE database variable description. The link to this document is given in Section 3.2.

For the Netherlands, the number of fatalities registered by the police is under-reported and equates to around 85% of the total number of fatalities published nationally. In 2023, the overall total was 684, while the police-based figure in the CARE database was 608.

How many police officers are there in the U.S.? In 2023, there were 720,652 full-time law enforcement officers employed in the United States, an increase from 708,001 the previous year. Within the provided time period, the number of full-time law enforcement officers was lowest in 2013, with 626,942 officers. Employment in law enforcement According to the source, law enforcement officers are defined as those individuals who regularly carry a firearm and an official badge on their person, have full powers of arrest, and whose salaries are paid from federal funds set aside specifically for sworn law enforcement. Law enforcement, particularly when it comes to officers, is a male-dominated field. Law enforcement employees can either be officers or civilians, and federal law enforcement agencies cover a wide area of jurisdictions -- from the National Park Service to the FBI.
Police in the United States The police in the United States have come under fire over the past few years for accusations of use of unnecessary force and for the number of people who are shot to death by police in the U.S. Police officers in the United States are regularly armed, and in comparison, 19 countries, including Iceland, New Zealand, and Ireland, do not regularly arm their police forces.

In 2023, the state with the highest crime rate in the United States per 100,000 inhabitants was New Mexico. That year, the crime rate was ******** crimes per 100,000 people. In comparison, New Hampshire had the lowest crime rate at ****** crimes per 100,000 people. Crime rate The crime rate in the United States has generally decreased over time. There are several factors attributed to the decrease in the crime rate across the United States. An increase in the number of police officers and an increase in income are some of the reasons for a decrease in the crime rate. Unfortunately, people of color have been disproportionately affected by crime rates, as they are more likely to be arrested for a crime versus a white person. Crime rates regionally The District of Columbia had the highest rate of reported violent crimes in the United States in 2023 per 100,000 inhabitants. The most common crime clearance type in metropolitan counties in the United States in 2020 was murder and non-negligent manslaughter. The second most dangerous city in the country in 2020 was Detroit. Detroit has faced severe levels of economic and demographic declines in the past years. Not only has the population decreased, the city has filed for bankruptcy. Despite the median household income increasing, the city still struggles financially.

There were *** homicides for every million people in England and Wales in 2024/25, compared with 9.4 in the previous reporting year. In 2023/24, the homicide rate among UK jurisdictions was highest in Scotland, at **** homicides per million people, and lowest in Northern Ireland, which had a homicide rate of ***. Throughout this provided time period, the homicide rate for Scotland has declined substantially. From 2003/04 to 2013/14, Scotland had the highest homicide rate among UK jurisdictions, with a peak of ** homicides per million people recorded in 2004/05. Uptick in violent crimes since the mid-2010s In 2002/03, there were ***** homicides in England and Wales, but by 2013/14, this had fallen to just ***, with similar declines also evident in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Unlike in the latter two jurisdictions, however, there was a noticeable uptick in homicides in England and Wales from 2016/17 onwards, with *** recorded in 2019/20. Additionally, there has been a surge in violence against the person offences in England and Wales, rising from around ******* in 2012/13 to more than *********** ten years later in 2022/23. It is unclear what exactly is driving this trend, but in an attempt to reverse it, the UK government has started to increase the manpower and funding available to UK police forces after several years of cuts. Struggles of the UK justice system Recent boosts to police funding come after almost a decade of austerity was imposed on most public services. Although some government departments were protected from this, the Ministry of Justice saw its budget decline from *** billion pounds in 2009/10 to just **** billion pounds in 2015/16. Although the Justice Budget has also increased recently, there are several signs that the system as a whole is under pressure. There is a significant backlog of cases at Crown Courts in England and Wales, with serious offences taking an average of almost***************** to pass through the court system. Meanwhile, prisons are struggling with severe capacity issues along with upticks in violence and self-harm.

In 2023, the FBI reported that there were 9,284 Black murder victims in the United States and 7,289 white murder victims. In comparison, there were 554 murder victims of unknown race and 586 victims of another race. Victims of inequality? In recent years, the role of racial inequality in violent crimes such as robberies, assaults, and homicides has gained public attention. In particular, the issue of police brutality has led to increasing attention following the murder of George Floyd, an African American who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Studies show that the rate of fatal police shootings for Black Americans was more than double the rate reported of other races. Crime reporting National crime data in the United States is based off the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s new crime reporting system, which requires law enforcement agencies to self-report their data in detail. Due to the recent implementation of this system, less crime data has been reported, with some states such as Delaware and Pennsylvania declining to report any data to the FBI at all in the last few years, suggesting that the Bureau's data may not fully reflect accurate information on crime in the United States.

In 2023, police in Germany solved 92.3 percent of murder cases. The clearance rate for murder cases during the specified time period remained high.

In 2024, there were approximately 25.4 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in the country, down from a homicide rate of 25.7 a year earlier. The homicide rate in Colombia has been stable since 2014 with the numbers varying between 24 and 26.8 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Crime and corruption Approximately 31 percent of the population identifies corruption as the main problem of the country, with fraud emerging as the foremost committed corruption and economic felony in Colombia. Followed by instances where residents were either firsthand or indirectly encountered attempts to purchase electoral votes. These experiences stem from discontent with flawed democratic functioning, culminating with the country positioned among the Latin American nations most plagued by corruption. Moreover, Colombia's corruption index was 39, where 0 represents the worst corruption scenario. Notably, those entrusted with safeguarding public welfare—the police, congressional representatives, and presidential personnel—are implicated in these transgressions, thereby fostering a prevailing sense of insecurity among the population. Not an easy way out of drug trafficking Amidst the economic challenges stemming from an uneven distribution of wealth that predominantly favors merely one percent of the population, the youth demographic and individuals residing in rural areas are more inclined towards seeking a convenient route to monetary gains. This trend has the adverse consequence of resulting in land expropriation and engenders a state of insecurity for landowners, particularly concerning crop cultivation. The proliferation of narcotics has escalated significantly, prompting alarm within the government. These authorities have grappled with a persistent inability to curb the proliferation of this phenomenon. Notably, the cultivation and exportation of marijuana and cocaine stand out as the primary illegal undertaking, facilitated through international transport via land, aircraft, and maritime shipments.

In 2023, murder and manslaughter charges had the highest crime clearance rate in the United States, with 57.8 percent of all cases being cleared by arrest or so-called exceptional means. Motor vehicle theft cases had the lowest crime clearance rate, at 8.2 percent. What is crime clearance? Within the U.S. criminal justice system, criminal cases can be cleared (or closed) one of two ways. The first is through arrest, which means that at least one person has either been arrested, charged with an offense, or turned over to the court for prosecution. The second way a case can be closed is through what is called exceptional means, where law enforcement must have either identified the offender, gathered enough evidence to arrest, charge, and prosecute someone, identified the offender’s exact location, or come up against a circumstance outside the control of law enforcement that keeps them from arresting and prosecuting the offender. Crime in the United States Despite what many people may believe, crime in the United States has been on the decline. Particularly in regard to violent crime, the violent crime rate has almost halved since 1990, meaning that the U.S. is safer than it was almost 30 years ago. However, due to the FBI's recent transition to a new crime reporting system in which law enforcement agencies voluntarily report crime data, it is possible that figures do not accurately reflect the total amount of crime in the country.