Encyclopedia of Sociology

CRIME RATES

Percent Change

Rate per 100,000 in the Rate

Offenses Number Inhabitants From 1988 to 1997

Crime index total 13,175,100 4,922.7 -13.1

Violent crime index 1,634,770 610.8 -4.1

Homicide 18,210 6.8 -19.0

Forcible rape 96,120 35.9 -4.5

Robbery 497,950 186.1 -15.8

Aggravated assault 1,022,490 382.0 -3.2

Property crime index 11,540,300 4,311.9 -14.2

Burglary 2,461,100 919.6 -29.8

Larceny-theft 7,725,500 2,886.5 -7.9

Motor vehicle theft 1,353,700 505.8 -13.2

Crimes and Crime Indexes For the United States, 1997

Table 2

SOURCE: Data are from Crime in the United States—1997 (Federal Bureau of Investigation 1998, Table 1)

These three methods are similar to those used to
collect crime data internationally: (1) official data
collected by law enforcement agencies, (2) surveys
of the victims of crimes, and (3) self-report studies
based on offenders. Other sources also are avail-
able, but less commonly used (e.g., vital statistics,
hospital records, and insurance records).

The Uniform Crime Reports. During the lat-
er half of the 1920s the International Association
of Chiefs of Police (IACP) developed uniform
crime definitions and counting rules that would
allow it to collect more comparable data from
different law enforcement agencies. The IACP
initiated the UCR in January of 1930. During the
latter part of 1930 the Bureau of Investigation
took over the UCR program, and it has remained a
function of that bureau (renamed the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, or FBI).

The general definitions of the UCR Part I
offenses appear in Table 1, but more detailed
definitions appear in the Uniform Crime Reporting
Handbook (FBI 1985). As an example, the Uniform
Crime Reporting System defines burglary as the
unlawful entry of any fixed structure, vehicle, or
vessel used for a regular residence, industry, or
business, with or without force, with the intent to
commit a felony, or larceny. Without uniform
definitions, jurisdictions in which state law defines
theft from a storage-shed as a burglary would
report such an incident as a burglary to the FBI. In
another jurisdiction, breaking and entering might
be required for an incident to be classified as a

burglary. In such a jurisdiction an incident in

which an offender entered a house through an

open window in order to steal a stereo would be

coded as unlawful entry with intent to commit a

crime for the purposes of the state’s law, but as a

burglary for UCR purposes.

Participation in the UCR is voluntary. Local

law-enforcement agencies send their data to the

FBI or to state-level UCR programs that forward

the data to the FBI. In the early years only the

largest law enforcement agencies in the United

States participated. But by the 1980s and 1990s,

agencies representing about 97 percent of the

population of the entire United States participat-

ed. The FBI reports two types of crime: Part I

crimes and Part II crimes. For Part I crimes, data

on crimes known to the police and on arrests are

reported; for Part II crimes, only data on arrests

are reported. Part I crimes include violent crimes

(murder and non-negligent homicide, forcible rape,

robbery, and aggravated assault), property crimes

(burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft),

and arson. Each year the news media report crime

rates derived from the FBI data and a summary of

these data appear annually in Crime in the United

States. This FBI publication provides crime rates

for states, metropolitan statistical areas, counties,

cities, other geographical subdivisions, and the

nation as a whole.

Table 2 presents Part I crime data from the

publication Crime in the United States—1997 (FBI

1998). The second column presents the number of