the arrest picture
i made this figure for yesterday's talk on how low-level arrest records affect employment. i wanted to show that only a small proportion of arrests involve violent crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. so, i plotted data from the fbi's 2007 uniform crime reports to show the distribution of the 14,209,365 u.s. arrests in that year. i usually walk through such numbers in my intro crime and delinquency courses.- about 4 percent of arrests are for violent "index" crimes -- murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
- if arrests for burglary, theft, auto theft, and arson are added to the violent crimes above, a total of about 16 percent of arrests are for part I offenses. so, about one in six arrests involve one of the index crimes that are commonly reported as the nation's crime rate.
- the big greenish slices of the pie are all drug- and alcohol-related.
- the large purplish region is for "all other offenses" -- violations of state or local laws not specifically identified as part i or part ii offenses, excluding traffic violations.
posted by christopher uggen @ 7:34 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
This is unrelated to this post, but have you heard The 757s yet? They're the best new rock band I've heard in a long time. Classic Minn rock sound without being derivative. I dig it.
Thanks for this Chris! I plan to use it in my courses and will credit you of course!
hey dave, thanks for the tip. given your endorsement, i've gotta check them out.
KU sociologist, thanks so much for the visit the past couple days -- it was one of my all-time favorite trips. now i'm trying to come back down to earth.
Do you know what the category "other assaults" refers to? Apparently they're not included in the idea of violent crime, but I'm not sure what a non-violent assault is.
most assaults are "simple assaults" rather than "aggravated" assaults. the former are often fights not involving weapons or major injuries. here's how the ucr distinguishes aggravated assault (a part I index crime) and simple assault (a part II crime).
part I
Aggravated Assault - an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury... usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by other means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. Attempted aggravated assault that involves the display of—or threat to use—a gun, knife, or other weapon is included in this crime category because serious personal injury would likely result if the assault were completed.
part II
Other Assaults - Assaults that do not involve the use of a firearm, knife or cutting instrument, or other dangerous weapon and in which the victim did not sustain serious or aggravated injuries are reported as Other Assaults– Simple, Not Aggravated. These data are not included in the aggravated assault statistics.
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