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Home • Crime in the U.S. • 2017 • Preliminary Report • Tables • Table 1 • Table 1 Data Declaration

Table 1 Data Declaration

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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 2016 and 2017.

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. Therefore, the rape data reported by those agencies using the UCR legacy definition for either 2016, 2017, or both years are not included in the rape percent change.

Methodology

The data used in creating this table were from law enforcement agencies submitting 3 to 6 common months of offense reports for 2016 and 2017. If the FBI determines certain variables have created unusual fluctuations in the data, those data are excluded from the tabulations.

The rape data reported by those agencies using the UCR legacy definition for either 2016, 2017, or both years are not included in the rape percent change. This includes 1,522 agencies with a total population of 27,683,803.

The percent changes shown for the offense of rape are based only on those agencies that submitted rape data based on the revised definition 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 agency count and population of those agencies can be found in the chart below.

Population Group Agencies using revised UCR rape definition
Agency Count Population

Total all agencies

11,511

229,613,075

1,000,000 and over

9

23,737,818

500,000 to 999,999

18

13,083,594

250,000 to 499,000

39

13,485,245

100,000 to 249,999

179

26,419,459

50,000 to 99,999

389

27,056,738

25,000 to 49,999

664

22,958,073

10,000 to 24,999

1,387

22,231,342

Under 10,000

5,719

17,484,562

Metropolitan County

1,401

46,048,711

Nonmetropolitan County1

1,706

17,107,533

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

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.

If you have questions about this table

Contact the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division via e-mail at .