Table 44 Data Declaration
Arrest Trends, Cities, 2016–2017
The FBI collects these data through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.
Important note about rape data
In 2013, the FBI’s UCR Program initiated the collection of rape data under a revised definition within the Summary Based Reporting System. The term “forcible” was removed from the offense name, and the definition was changed to “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.”
In 2016, the FBI Director approved the recommendation to discontinue the reporting of rape data using the UCR legacy definition beginning in 2017.
General comments
- This 2-year trend table provides the number of persons arrested in cities in 2016 and 2017 and the percent change when the data for these 2 years are compared. The table furnishes a breakdown of these data by juveniles (persons under age 18) and adults.
- City law enforcement agencies are defined as all agencies within Population Groups I–VI. (See Area Definitions.)
- These data represent the number of persons arrested; however, some persons may be arrested more than once during a year. Therefore, the statistics in this table could, in some cases, represent multiple arrests of the same person.
Methodology
- The data used in creating this table were from all city law enforcement agencies submitting 12 months of arrest data for both 2016 and 2017.
- The rape figures in this table are aggregate totals of data submitted using both the legacy and revised UCR definitions of rape.
Population estimation
For the 2017 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 2016 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 2016 Census population estimate to derive the agency’s 2017 population estimate.
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.