The FBI just released its 2014 Uniform Crime Reports “2014 Crime in the United States” summaries, and there are some statistics Law Shield members might find interesting:
The estimated number of violent crimes in the nation decreased 0.2 percent in 2014 when compared with 2013 data, according to the FBI figures released Sept. 28. Property crimes decreased by 4.3 percent, marking the 12th straight year the collective estimates for these offenses declined.
The 2014 statistics show the estimated rate of violent crime was 365.5 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants, and the property crime rate was 2,596.1 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. The violent crime rate declined 1.0 percent compared to the 2013 rate, and the property crime rate declined 5.0 percent.
There were an estimated 1,165,383 violent crimes (murder and non-negligent homicides, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults) reported by law enforcement.
Aggravated assaults accounted for 63.6 percent of the violent crimes reported, while robberies accounted for 28.0 percent, rape 7.2 percent, and murders 1.2 percent.
There were an estimated 8,277,829 property crimes (burglaries, larceny-thefts, and motor vehicle thefts) reported by law enforcement. Financial losses suffered by victims of these crimes were calculated at approximately $14.3 billion.
Larceny-theft accounted for 70.8 percent of all property crimes reported, burglary for 20.9 percent, and motor vehicle theft for 8.3 percent
Police made an estimated 11,205,833 arrests during 2014—498,666 for violent crimes, and 1,553,980 for property crimes. More than 73 percent of those arrested during 2014 were male.
The highest number of arrests was for drug abuse violations (1,561,231), followed by larceny-theft (1,238,190) and driving under the influence (1,117,852).
Because of ongoing calls to ban or restrict the capacity of AR-style rifles — or what some gun illiterates refer to as “assault rifles,” — it’s worth noting that murders by all rifles (as reported by the FBI) totaled 248.
“Other weapons,” aka clubs, bats, rocks and so on, were used in 1610 murders.
Knives or cutting instruments were cited as the instruments in 1567 murders.
In fact, the total number of murders committed by assailants’ hands and feet totaled 660 — more than double the homicides committed by all rifles. Does it really make sense that anti-gun groups keep trying to ban civilian use of ARs, when all rifles account for a fraction of murder methods?
FBI Director Jim Comey commented on the data and additional efforts that he intends to implement, some of which may affect gun owners:
[T]o to address the ongoing debate about the appropriate use of force by law enforcement, we plan to collect more data about shootings (fatal and nonfatal) between law enforcement and civilians, and to increase reporting overall.
Currently, the UCR program collects the number of justifiable homicides reported by police as well as information about the felonious killing and assault of law enforcement officers. These data are available in Crime in the United States and Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted.
As helpful as this information is, however, we need more law enforcement agencies to submit their justifiable homicide data so that we can better understand what is happening across the country. Once we receive this data, we will add a special publication that focuses on law enforcement’s use of force in shooting incidents that will outline facts about what happened, who was involved, the nature of injuries or deaths, and the circumstances behind these incidents.
What do you think about these rates? Let us hear from you in the comments section below.
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