FBI Releases 2016 Report On Crime In The United States

The FBI released the below information:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation today released the 2016 edition of its Crime in the United States (CIUS) report, a part of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). The report, which covers January-December 2016, reaffirms that the worrying violent crime increase that began in 2015 after many years of decline was not an isolated incident. The violent crime rate increased by 3.4 percent nationwide in 2016, the largest single-year increase in 25 years. The nationwide homicide rate increased by 7.9 percent, for a total increase of more than 20 percent in the nationwide homicide rate since 2014.

“For the sake of all Americans, we must confront and turn back the rising tide of violent crime. And we must do it together,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. “The Department of Justice is committed to working with our state, local, and tribal partners across the country to deter violent crime, dismantle criminal organizations and gangs, stop the scourge of drug trafficking, and send a strong message to criminals that we will not surrender our communities to lawlessness and violence.”

The report released today also adjusts and corrects numbers for 2015, showing that the violent crime rate actually increased by 3.3 percent (as opposed to 3.1 percent, as previously reported) in 2015. The violent crime rate increases in 2015 and 2016 each represented the largest single-year increases in the violent crime rate since 1991. These increases were nationwide, with the average violent crime rate increasing in cities over 250,000 in population, in cities under 10,000 in population, in suburban areas, and in every size in-between. In addition to the 7.9 percent homicide rate increase in 2016, the corrected numbers show the homicide rate increased by 11.4 percent in 2015, for a total increase of more than 20 percent from 2014-2016. Rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults also each continued to increase nationwide in 2016.

You can read the full report via the below report:

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/cius-2016 

Tracking Animal Cruelty: The FBI Is Collecting Data On Crimes Against Animals

The FBI released a report on their tracking animal cruelty:

Acts of cruelty against animals are now counted alongside felony crimes like arson, burglary, assault, and homicide in the FBI’s expansive criminal database.

On January 1, the Bureau’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) began collecting detailed data from participating law enforcement agencies on acts of animal cruelty, including gross neglect, torture, organized abuse, and sexual abuse. Before this year, crimes that involved animals were lumped into an “All Other Offenses” category in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s annual Crime in the United States report, a survey of crime data provided by about 18,000 city, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies.

By adding animal cruelty offenses to NIBRS, law enforcement agencies and the advocacy groups that pushed for the inclusion in the FBI database are hoping the results will reveal a more complete picture of the nature of cruelty to animals.

“Some studies say that cruelty to animals is a precursor to larger crime,” said Nelson Ferry, who works in the Bureau’s Criminal Statistics Management Unit, which manages NIBRS. “That’s one of the items that we’re looking at.”

You can read the rest of the report via the below link:

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2016/february/tracking-animal-cruelty/tracking-animal-cruelty?utm_campaign=email-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=fbi-top-stories&utm_content=511474

FBI: 2014 Expanded Crime Statistics Released National Incident-Based Reporting System Includes More Detailed Data

The FBI released the below report yesterday:

Today, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program released details on more than 5.4 million criminal offenses reported by law enforcement through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) during 2014. According to NIBRS, 2014, 6,520 law enforcement agencies—charged with protecting more than 93 million U.S. inhabitants—reported 4,759,438 incidents involving 5,489,485 offenses, 5,790,423 victims, and 4,414,016 known offenders.

Among the report’s highlights:

• Of the offenses reported during 2014, 63.6 percent involved crimes against property, 23 percent involved crimes against persons, and 13.4 percent included crimes against society (so-called “victimless” crimes like gambling).
• There were 4,414,016 known offenders, meaning that at least one characteristic of the suspect—such as age, sex, or race—was known. Of these offenders, nearly a third (32.3 percent) were between 16 and 25 years of age, the majority (63.9 percent) were male, and more than half (57.1 percent) were white.
• Concerning the relationship of victims to known offenders, 52.7 percent of the 1,273,602 victims knew the individual perpetrating the crime but were not related to them. Nearly a quarter of the victims (24.8 percent) were related to their offenders.

In addition to the standard data tables, this year’s NIBRS report includes a brand new feature: an interactive map that allows users to click on a state, view map pins for each agency, select a pin, and get a dropdown listing of that agency’s offense data for 2014.

NIBRS, 2014 also includes a monograph on sex offenses previously reported by law enforcement that demonstrates the benefit of NIBRS data in allowing a more granular examination of a topic.

Unlike data reported through UCR’s traditional Summary Reporting System (an aggregate monthly tally of crimes) and published annually in Crime in the United States, NIBRS data goes much deeper because of its ability to provide circumstances and context for crimes. It includes all offenses within a single incident as well as additional aspects about each event, like location, time of day, relationship between victim and offender, and whether the incident was cleared. NIBRS also includes data on 23 offense categories made up of 49 offenses, as opposed to the Summary Reporting System’s 10 Part I offenses. Ultimately, NIBRS will improve the detail and overall quality of crime data, which will help law enforcement and communities around the country use resources more strategically and effectively.

However, only about a third of all U.S. law enforcement agencies currently participate in NIBRS. Transitioning to the new system can be somewhat costly, and—because of the greater level of reporting specificity in NIBRS—it can initially appear that an agency has higher levels of crime after switching to NIBRS.

But because NIBRS can provide more useful statistics that will promote constructive discussion, measured planning, and informed policing, FBI Director James Comey has made across-the-board implementation of NIBRS one of his top priorities. At a recent International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference in Chicago—a video excerpt of his remarks is included in this latest NIBRS report—he talked about the importance of this program: “We face a data shortage on the violent crime front. We can’t tell you on a national level how many shootings there were in any particular city last weekend,” Comey said. “How can we address a rise in violent crime without good information? And without information, every single conversation in this country about policing and reform and justice is uninformed, and that is a very bad place to be.”

And influential organizations like the IACP, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Major City Chiefs Association, and the Major County Sheriffs’ Association agree—all have pledged their support for NIBRS.  

FBI: Next Generation Crime Stats Can Offer Fuller Crime Picture

The FBI web site offers a report on the next generation of crime statistics.

I believe that NIBRS is the pathway to better data—to richer data—that we can all use to have informed conversations about the most important issues we face.”

That statement by FBI Director James Comey regarding the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program’s National Incident-Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, was part of a speech he delivered recently to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives on the topic of law enforcement and race.

To help address the issue more effectively, Comey called for better reporting of incidents where force is used by—as well as against—police. He noted that current demographic data regarding officer-involved shootings is not consistently reported to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program because reporting is voluntary for police departments.

The desire to enhance the quality and quantity of the crime data collected throughout the nation is not new. Back in the 1980s, the Bureau—working directly with our law enforcement partners to help us improve UCR—took advantage of a rapidly changing data processing environment to create a system that would capture more detailed information on individual crime occurrences. All of this additional detail would, collectively, paint a more comprehensive picture of crime on a national level.

NIBRS was officially implemented in 1989. While there have been agencies submitting NIBRS data since then—mostly through their state UCR programs—still not enough do so to report on it from a national perspective. Explains Assistant Director Stephen Morris, who heads up our Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division, “The biggest challenge for any agency, whether you’re a local police department or a state program office, is the resources needed to convert systems to NIBRS and the personnel needed to oversee those systems.”

You can read the rest of the report via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/may/next-generation-crime-stats/next-generation-crime-stats?utm_campaign=email-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=fbi-top-stories&utm_content=427404