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Crime
facts at a glance
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Serious
violent crime levels continued to decline in 1999.
To view data,
click on the chart.
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[D]
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Note: The serious
violent crimes included are rape, robbery, aggravated
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assault, and homicide.
(For related data about homicide trends, see Homicide
Trends in the U.S.) The
National Crime Victimization Survey redesign was implemented in 1993; the
area with the lighter shading is before the redesign and the darker area
after the redesign. The data before 1993 are adjusted to make them comparable
with data collected since the redesign. The adjustment methods are described
in Criminal
Victimization 1973-95. Estimates for 1993 and beyond are based
on collection year while earlier estimates are based on data year. For
additional information about the methods used, see Criminal
Victimization 1999.
The
measures of serious violent crime come from two sources of data:
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The
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), a household survey
ongoing since 1972, that interviews about 80,000 persons age 12 and older
in 43,000 households twice each year about their victimizations from crime.
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The
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) that collects information on crimes
and arrests reported by law enforcement authorities to the FBI.
Although each
measure is different, both the NCVS and the UCR show that serious violent
crime levels declined in recent years.
The measures
are:
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Total serious
violent crime
The number
of homicides recorded by police plus the number of rapes, robberies, and
aggravated assaults from the victimization survey whether or not they were
reported to the police.
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Victimizations
reported to the police
The number
of homicides recorded by police plus the number of rapes, robberies, and
aggravated assaults from the victimization survey that victims said were
reported to the police.
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Crimes recorded
by the police
The number
of homicides, forcible rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults included
in the Uniform Crime Reports of the FBI excluding commercial robberies
and crimes that involved victims under age 12.
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Arrests for
violent crimes
The number
of persons arrested for homicide, forcible rape, robbery or aggravated
assault as reported by law enforcement agencies to the FBI.
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The adjustment
methods used on the data in the chart were developed by James Alan Fox,
Ph.D. for Trends
in Juvenile Violence, a report produced under a Bureau of Justice
Statistics grant and by Michael Rand, James Lynch, and David Cantor as
reported in Criminal
Victimization 1973-95. |
