National Crime Headlines:
Some in criminal justice circles are predicting increases in violent crime for 2015.
Violent and property crime decline in 2014-National Crime Survey
Violent and property crime decline in 2013-National Crime Survey
The violent crime rate had declined for nearly two decades before increasing in 2011 and 2012-National Crime Survey
Violent and property crime decreased in 2013 and 2014-FBI-Crime Reported to Police
2014 data show increases in aggravated assault and rape- FBI-Crime Reported to Police
Lowest murder rate since 1960 but violent crime increases in 2012-FBI-Crime Reported to Police
From Crime in America.Net staff
There are two primary sources for crime data in the United States. The first is crime reported to law enforcement agencies, processed at the state level and reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Many criminologists see this data as an index of serious crimes.
The second is the National Crime Survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics which is an attempt to document all measured crime in the US regardless of reported and unreported crime.
FBI-Crimes reported to police-Summary:
The FBI reports preliminary figures indicating that law enforcement agencies throughout the nation showed an overall decrease of 4.6 percent in the number of violent crimes for the first 6 months of 2014 when compared with figures reported for the same time in 2013. The violent crime category includes murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. The number of property crimes in the United States from January to June of 2014 decreased 7.5 percent when compared with data for the same time period in 2013.
However, when the FBI released their full report for 2014, the estimated number of violent crimes in the nation decreased 0.2 percent in 2014 when compared with 2013 data. Aggravated assault and rapes increased. Property crimes decreased by 4.3 percent, marking the 12th straight year the collective estimates for these offenses declined.
The FBI released Crime in the United States, 2013, which shows that the estimated number of violent crimes in 2013 decreased 4.4 percent when compared with 2012 figures, and the estimated number of property crimes decreased 4.1 percent. There were an estimated 1,163,146 violent crimes reported to law enforcement last year, along with an estimated 8,632,512 property crimes
Property crimes decreased 4.1 percent in 2013, marking the 11th straight year the collective estimates for these offenses declined.
The 2013 statistics show the estimated rate of violent crime was 367.9 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants, and the property crime rate was 2,730.7 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. The violent crime rate declined 5.1 percent compared to the 2012 rate, while the property crime rate declined 4.8 percent.
2012-The FBI estimated that in 2012 the number of violent crimes increased 0.7 percent. However, property crimes decreased 0.9 percent, marking the tenth straight year of declines for these offenses, collectively.
The rate for homicide remained at historic lows, 4.7 percent per 100,000 in 2012.
National Crime Survey-summary:
Violent crime rates decreased from 2013 (23.2 victimizations per 1,000) to 2014 (20.1 per 1,000).
1993 to 2014, the rate of violent crime declined from 79.8 to 20.1 per 1,000.
The overall property crime rate (which includes household burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft) decreased from 131.4 victimizations per 1,000 households in 2013 to 118.1 victimizations per 1,000 in 2014.
In 2013, the overall violent crime rate declined slightly from 26.1 to 23.2 victimizations per 1,000 U.S. residents from 2012 to 2013, per the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The violent crime rate had declined for nearly two decades before increasing in 2011 and 2012.
The overall property crime rate, which includes burglary, theft and motor vehicle theft, also decreased after two consecutive years of increases. From 2012 to 2013, the rate declined from 155.8 to 131.4 victimizations per 1,000 U.S. households.
In 2012, for the second consecutive year, violent and property crime rates increased for U.S. residents age 12 or older, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The overall violent crime rate (which includes rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated and simple assault) rose from 22.6 victimizations per 1,000 persons in 2011 to 26.1 in 2012
Crimes not reported to police:
The problem is that the majority of crime (approximately half of violent crimes and 40 percent of property crimes) are not reported to law enforcement agencies.
Crimes are not reported because victims see the event as a personal matter (a fight between friends or family members) or a theft that the victim considers minor or the victim’s belief that law enforcement cannot resolve the issue (a theft where the likelihood of getting property back or resulting in the arrest of the offender is unlikely).
To deal with the crime reporting issue, the Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice under the US Department of Justice created the National Crime Survey. The National Crime Survey collects data from households and individuals (similar to the Census Bureau) to get a picture of total crime.
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