FBI: Crime Is Down Nationwide

The FBI report, Crime in the United States, 2007, compiles crime statistics voluntarily reported by 17,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide. Overall, reported crime is down.

By Famin Ahmed, NCPC Staff

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has published its annual crime report and announced that, for the first time since 2005, rates for violent crime have fallen. According to the report, Crime in the United States, 2007, property crime rates also declined for the fifth straight year, and each of the seven specific offense categories under violent crime and property crime have shown a decrease from rates reported in 2006. In July, we reported a similar decline in crime rates, as stated in the FBI’s 2006 Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report.

Rates for all four of the violent crime offenses declined in 2007 when compared with 2006. Reported rates of forcible rape fell 2.5 percent when compared with rates from 2006; murder rates fell 0.6 percent; aggravated assault rates fell 0.6 percent; and robbery rates dropped 0.5 percent. An estimated 1.4 million violent crimes were reported last year, about 466.9 instances per 100,000 inhabitants. This rate is a 0.7 percent decrease from 2006.

Rates for each category of property crime also went down in 2007. Property crimes (excluding arson) fell 1.4 percent in 2007, to an estimated 9.8 million. Reported rates of motor vehicle theft dropped 8.1 percent, though larceny/theft offenses accounted for two-thirds of all property crimes. Victims of property crimes (except arson) collectively lost property worth an estimated $17.6 billion.

“Overall, this report is welcomed news,” said Alfonso E. Lenhardt, president and CEO of the National Crime Prevention Council. “However, there were still 1.4 million violent crimes committed in 2007. Millions of individuals and communities across the country were victimized. We must remain vigilant in reducing crime throughout America.”

By region, reported crime rates remain lowest in the Northeast, with 2,203.7 property crimes and 372.4 violent crimes reported per 100,000 inhabitants. Crime rates are highest in the South, with 3,802.1 property crimes and 549.2 violent crimes reported per 100,000 inhabitants.

When comparing the percent change in volume and rate in crime per 100,000 inhabitants, overall crime is down. Comparing 2007’s violent crime rates with those in 1998, rates have fallen about 17.7 percent. The 10-year percent change in property crime rates dropped 19.5 percent.

Nearly 30 offense tables are available on the FBI website, comparing crime rates by geographical area as well as by offense and offender characteristics. All can be read online or downloaded into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

The FBI estimates that law enforcement agencies nationwide made 14.2 million arrests in 2007 (excluding traffic offenses). The arrest rate for violent crime was 200.2 per 100,000 inhabitants and the arrest rate for property crime was 544.1 arrests per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2006, about 14.4 million arrests were made, of which the arrest rate was 207 per 100,000 inhabitants for violent crime and 524.5 per 100,000 inhabitants for property crime. About 30 tables with arrest data for 2007 can also be downloaded from the FBI website.

Crime in the United States compiles the data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. The UCR is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of more than 17,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention. The UCR program collects offense information for the following eight offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In 2007, law enforcement agencies reporting in the UCR Program represented more than 285 million United States inhabitants—94.6 percent of the total population.

Crime in the United States, 2007, also includes information about the age, gender, and race of persons arrested for 29 different offenses; a crime map; and staffing levels of 14,600 U.S. law enforcement agencies.

However, the UCR program only includes statistics on crimes that have been reported. It is designed to complement the U.S. Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which estimates the number of unreported serious crimes nationwide. Because UCR gathers statistics on reported crimes only, it may not be an accurate reflection of the actual number of crimes committed in the nation. Also, the Hierarchy Rule, which states that in multiple-offense situations only the offense highest on the hierarchy list will be reported, keeps the UCR from being an entirely accurate report of all crimes reported. The FBI warns against using the UCR statistics to rank cities or counties, as that could lead to overly simplistic and incomplete analyses by overlooking the many variables that impact crime and reporting.

Although the UCR program reports decreases in crime rates, most of those decreases are not substantial declines from previous years. A 0.7 percent decrease in violent crime indicates that there is still a lot of work to be done. When the annual ratio of crime is set to fixed time intervals, we still see a murder being committed every 31 minutes and motor vehicle theft happening every 28.8 seconds.

“It is encouraging to see the crime rates drop from the 2006 UCR report,” said Kate Black, research analyst for the National Crime Prevention Council. “However, with a burglary occurring every 15 seconds and an aggravated assault occurring every 37 seconds, there is still an enormous need for crime prevention training, programming, and education. In the six minutes it will take to read this article, a woman has been forcibly raped.”

The downward trend in crime rates is always heartening. It means that we’re on the right path, and that what we’ve been doing is working. But the slow decrease means that community involvement is just as important as ever.

Terri Kelly, NCPC’s managing director of Community Outreach, said, “Communities working together and with law enforcement to prevent crime unquestionably help keep individuals, homes, families, and neighborhoods safe. After all, it’s everyone’s responsibility to watch out and help out in the fight against crime. Less crime is no accident.”