The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/crime-statistics/)
A new study by the United States Sentencing Commission found that 72.8 of federal offenders had been previously convicted, mainly for public order offenses and violent offenses.
The biggest decline in firearm homicides was among African-American men, amounting to 32 per cent between 2000 and 2015, according to the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program. But the decline coincided with a rise in gun deaths in rural counties.
While the overall murder rate still remains far below the one recorded in the ’90s, the increase in 2016 was the greatest recorded in nearly two decades.
Bill Hightower, a Republican candidate for Alabama governor, made the assertion in a recent debate. While criminologists say it generally is true that a small percentage of the population is responsible for a large percentage of crime, the politician had oversimplified and convoluted a 2003 study about school suspensions.
A new law that takes effect July 1 mandates reporting and consolidation of data from multiple agencies, including prisons, law enforcement agencies and courts. Lawmakers call it the gold standard in justice data reporting. The information will be available to the public on a government website.
A 15-member panel assembled by the National Academy of Sciences said Wednesday that current statistics collection has left gaps in data about many offenses affecting American life today. It also recommended that the government consider centralizing the control of collecting crime statistics.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo touted a 0.9 percent drop in violent crime last year. The Las Vegas Review-Journal finds that at least two murders were omitted, as were the 58 deaths in the mass shooting at a concert.
Many oft-cited statistics disregard forms of school violence that may not have involved guns but are similar to shootings in intention or impact, says The Atlantic. The messiness of counting school shootings contributes to sensationalizing or oversimplifying a modern trend of mass violence in the U.S. based on information is confusing at best and inaccurate at worst.
Data from the first six months of 2017 showed the cities with the highest murder numbers per 100,000 population. New Orlenas, Detroit and Cleveland rounded out the top five. Chicago came in as number eight.
Long response times can lead to officers recording fewer incidents as crimes. An analysis of data from New Orleans, Detroit and Cincinnati found that as response times go up, the likelihood that a crime will be found drops.