Percent Change, by Population Group
The FBI collects these data through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.
General comment
This table provides the percent change in offenses known to law enforcement, by population group, for the first 6 months of 2014 and 2015.
Important note about rape data
In 2013, the FBI UCR Program initiated the collection of rape data under a revised definition and removed the term “forcible” from the offense name. The UCR Program now defines rape as follows:
Rape (revised definition): Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim. (This includes the offenses of rape, sodomy, and sexual assault with an object as converted from data submitted via the National Incident-Based Reporting System [NIBRS]).
Rape (legacy definition): The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.
Since the implementation of the revised definition of rape in 2013, not all agencies/state UCR programs have had the ability to change their records management systems to accommodate the change. Therefore, this report provides a column for rape (revised definition) and a column for rape (legacy definition). The data shown in the rape (revised definition) column include those from agencies that reported rape under the UCR revised definition for 2014 and 2015 as well as converted data from agencies that reported data for rape, sodomy, and sexual assault with an object via the NIBRS for both years. The data shown in the rape (legacy definition) column include only those agencies that reported rape under the legacy definition via the Summary Reporting System (SRS) for 2014 and 2015; it does not include any converted NIBRS data.
Methodology
The data used in creating this table were from law enforcement agencies submitting 3 to 6 common months of offense reports for 2014 and 2015. If the FBI determines certain variables have created unusual fluctuations in the data, those data are excluded from the tabulations.
The rape figures for those agencies that changed from reporting rape under the legacy definition in 2014 to the UCR revised definition of rape in 2015 are not included in this table. Because the UCR Program has not received two consecutive years of data for rape (legacy definition) or two consecutive years of data for rape (revised definition), the national UCR Program cannot provide a 2-year rape comparison for these agencies. This includes 1,344 agencies representing a total population of 37,458,523 inhabitants.
The percent changes shown for the offense of rape (revised definition) are based on data from those agencies that submitted rape data according to the UCR revised definition for both 2014 and 2015 as well as converted data from agencies that reported data for rape, sodomy, and sexual assault with an object via the NIBRS for both years.
The percent changes shown for the offense of rape (legacy definition) are based only on data from those agencies that submitted rape data according to the legacy definition via the SRS for both years; it does not include converted NIBRS data.
Because rape data reported by all agencies for 2014 and 2015 cannot be aggregated for reasons noted above, the percent changes from one year to the next are calculated with fewer agencies than in recent years. Offenses with fewer counts are often sensitive to minor differences when calculating trends. The following table provides the actual number of reporting agencies and populations covered for each definition of rape. (As previously noted, agencies that submitted data using rape [legacy definition] for 2014 and rape [revised definition] for 2015 are not included in this report.)
|
|
Agencies using revised UCR rape definition |
Agencies using legacy UCR rape definition |
||
|
Population Group |
Agency Count |
Population |
Agency Count |
Population |
|
Total all agencies |
10,053 |
195,368,673 |
1,482 |
27,162,187 |
|
1,000,000 and over |
9 |
24,645,438 |
0 |
0 |
|
500,000 to 999,999 |
14 |
9,762,564 |
2 |
1,415,790 |
|
250,000 to 499,000 |
29 |
9,691,246 |
4 |
1,446,239 |
|
100,000 to 249,999 |
147 |
22,077,021 |
15 |
2,309893 |
|
50,000 to 99,999 |
276 |
19,166,112 |
27 |
1,800,034 |
|
25,000 to 49,999 |
531 |
18,262,233 |
64 |
2,136,392 |
|
10,000 to 24,999 |
1,150 |
18,365,720 |
150 |
2,369,741 |
|
Under 10,000 |
5,038 |
15,414,224 |
711 |
2,176,697 |
|
Metropolitan County |
1,156 |
40,552,799 |
211 |
10,349,318 |
|
Nonmetropolitan County1 |
1,703 |
17,431,316 |
298 |
3,158,083 |
1 Includes state police agencies that report aggregately for the entire state.
Population estimation
For the 2014 population estimates used in this table, the FBI computed individual rates of growth from one year to the next for every city/town and county using 2010 decennial population counts and 2011 through 2013 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Each agency’s rates of growth were averaged; that average was then applied and added to its 2013 census population estimate to derive the agency’s 2014 population estimate.
If you have questions about this table
Contact the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division via e-mail at crimestatsinfo@ic.fbi.gov.
