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Home Crime in the U.S. 2016 Crime in the U.S. 2016 Tables Table 10 Table 10 Data Declaration

Table 10 Data Declaration

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Crime Trends, by Population Group, 2015-2016

The FBI collects these data through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

Important note about rape data

In 2013, the 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 adapt 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 2015 and 2016 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 2015 and 2016; it does not include any converted NIBRS data.

General comments

  • This 2-year trend table provides the number of offenses for 2015 and 2016 and the percent change between these 2 years, listed by population group. 
  • Metropolitan counties include sheriffs’ offices and county law enforcement agencies associated with a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). 
  • Nonmetropolitan counties include sheriffs’ offices and county law enforcement agencies that are not associated with an MSA. 
  • Suburban areas include law enforcement agencies in cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants and county law enforcement agencies that are within an MSA. 
  • Suburban areas exclude all metropolitan agencies associated with a principal city. The agencies associated with suburban areas also appear in other groups within this table. 

Methodology

  • The data used in creating this table were from all law enforcement agencies submitting at least 6 common months of complete offense reports for 2015 and 2016. If the FBI determines certain variables have created unusual fluctuations in the data, those data are excluded from the tabulations. 
  • A crime trend represents the percentage change in crime based on data reported in a prior equivalent period. In calculating trends, the UCR Program includes only common reported months for individual agencies. 
  • The rape figures for those agencies that changed from reporting rape under the legacy definition in 2015 to the UCR revised definition of rape in 2016 are not included in this table. Because the UCR Program has not received 2 consecutive years of data for rape (legacy definition) or 2 consecutive years of data for rape (revised definition), the national UCR Program cannot provide a 2-year rape comparison for these agencies. This includes 323 agencies with a total population of 4,294,004 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 2015 and 2016 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 2015 and 2016 cannot be aggregated for reasons noted above, the percent changes from one year to the next are calculated with smaller numbers 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 2015 and rape [revised definition] for 2016 are not included in this table.) 

Populations used to calculate rape trends (based on rape definition used for submitted data)
by Population Group, 2016

Population Group

Agencies using the revised UCR rape definition

Agencies using the legacy UCR rape definition

Agency count

Population

Agency count

Population

Total all agencies

13,799

274,089,078

1,501

27,048,169

Total Cities

9,815

191,233,645

1,118

14,114,492

I (250,000 inhabitants and more)

77

58,270,301

5

2,482,852

Ia (1,000,000 and over)

11

27,658,777

0

0

Ib (500,000 to 999,999)

21

15,324,060

2

1,457,939

Ic (250,000 to 499,000)

45

15,287,464

3

1,024,913

II (100,000 to 249,999 inhabitants)

207

30,519,889

11

1,787,501

III (50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants)

440

30,523,520

30

2,058,504

IV (25,000 to 49,999 inhabitants)

766

26,653,760

75

2,558,192

V (10,000 to 24,999 inhabitants)

1,583

25,321,792

175

2,741,698

VI (Less than 10,000 inhabitants)

6,742

19,944,383

822

2,485,745

IX (Metropolitan County)

1,787

62,435,790

186

9,565,220

VIII (Nonmetropolitan County)1

2,197

20,419,643

197

3,368,457

Suburban Area2

7,627

115,979,645

774

14,281,457


1Includes state police agencies that report aggregately for the entire state.

2Suburban areas include law enforcement agencies in cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants and county law enforcement agencies that are within a Metropolitan Statistical Area. Suburban areas exclude all metropolitan agencies associated with a principal city. The agencies associated with suburban areas also appear in other groups within this table.

Population groups

The UCR Program uses the following population group designations:

Population Group

Political Label

Population Range

I

City

250,000 and more

II

City

100,000 to 249,999

III

City

50,000 to 99,999

IV

City

25,000 to 49,999

V

City

10,000 to 24,999

VI1,2

City

Less than 10,000

VIII (Nonmetropolitan County)2

County

N/A

IX (Metropolitan County)2

County

N/A


1Includes universities and colleges to which no population is attributed.

2Includes state police to which no population is attributed.

Population estimation

For the 2016 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 2015 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 2015 Census population estimate to derive the agency’s 2016 population estimate.