Records of Crime in the United States
Records of crime in the United States of America have been reported since the colonization period. At different times in history, crime rates have been varying, and there have been reasons which have been provided to explain these variations. In ensuring that statistics about specific crimes in different regions of the United States of America are appropriately collected, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) indexes crime information on the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). The Bureau of Justice Statistics also conducts annual National Crime Victimization surveys to keep records of crimes taking place in the United States of America. The most common types of crime that take place in the United States of America are violent and property crimes (Facts, 2018). Violent crimes are crimes in which the perpetrator or the offender threatens or uses force against the victim. Types of violent crimes include; sexual assault, rape, robbery, and murder. Property crime on the hand is a type of crime where the perpetrator or the offender does not threaten or use force on the victims. Property crimes relate to theft or destruction of property that belongs to someone else. In this paper, trends in property and violent crimes are in the United States discussed. A comparison between the national trend and the trend in California is also presented.
Trends in Crime Levels in the United States
According to the UCR data recorded by the FBI, the national crime levels between 2005 and 2014 dropped. The number of all arrests in 2014 fell by 19.7 percent as compared to some arrests that were made in 2005. This means that there was a general decrease in the number of criminal activities that were done in the country in 2014 as compared to criminal activities that were done in 2005. The arrest figures for offenders who had committed violent crimes in 2014 dropped by 16.1 percent when compared with the arrests made in 2005 (Table 32, 2018). This means that the levels of violent crimes within the ten years period decreased in the United States. One of the most common violent crimes in the United States is murder, of the violent crimes arrests, the number of perpetrators arrested for murder had the most significant drop at 24.0 percent. The levels of property crimes also decreased, when compared with the arrest figures of 2005, the number of arrests in 2014 decreased by 4.1 percent. For the property crimes, motor vehicle theft reported the most significant drop of 50.5 percent. However, larceny-theft reported an increase of 5.5 percent. Adult arrests made in 2014 dropped by 14.1 percent as compared to adult arrests that were made in 2005. Juvenile arrests also decreased by 51.2 percent in 2014 when compared to juvenile arrests that were made in 2005.
Trends in Crime Levels in California
Crime levels in California also dropped between 2005 and 2014. The levels of crime in the state of California dropped consistently with the national crime levels. The total number of arrests made in California in 2005 for violent crime was 190,178. There was a drop in some arrests made in 2014, the total number of arrests made in 2014 was 153,709. Just like in the nationwide crime levels, the number of criminal activities done in 2014 in California dropped as compared to the number of criminal activities done in the state in 2005. The number of violent crime perpetrator arrests has been gradually declining since 2006. Just like in the national crime levels trend, the crime rate of murder in California had a more significant drop with the number of arrests made in 2005 being 2,505, and in 2014, 1,699 arrests were made (Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics, 2018). For property crime, in 2005, 1,200,531 arrests were made, the number of arrests dropped by more than half in 2014 to 947,192. Unlike in the national crime levels between 2005 and 2014, the number of arrests for larceny-theft in California fell, in 2005, 692,467 arrests were made, and in 2014, 592,670 arrests for larceny-theft were made. Just like the national crime levels trend, motor vehicle theft levels had the largest drop as compared to the other forms of property crimes. In 2005, 257,543 arrests were made while in 2014, 151,852 arrests were made. The nationwide crime levels dropped in the period between 2005 and 2014 just like the crime levels in California. The figure of arrests for various property and violent crimes made in 2005 decreased when compared to arrests made in 2014 both nationally and in the State of California. The crime trends in California are consistent with the national trends.
Projection of Crime Trends
From the information obtained from the FBI UCR records, it can be seen that crime rates in different parts of the United States have been dropping in the recent past. The number of arrests for violent and property crimes significantly dropped over ten years (Facts, 2018). Since crime statistics started to be tabulated, it can be noted that the crime rates throughout the country have been significantly dropping. In projecting the crime trends in the country, we will use the data that has been obtained from the UCR it can be seen that the crime levels will drop over the next ten years.
Sources:
- FBI-UCR
- Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics
References
Table 32. (2018). Retrieved from https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/table-32
Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.ucrdatatool.gov/Search/Crime/State/RunCrimeStatebyState.cfm
Facts, V. (2018). Topic: Violent crime in the U.S. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/topics/1750/violent-crime-in-the-us/
