NCJ Number
182320
Date Published
1999
Length
282 pages
Annotation
This report presents and discusses statistics on incident reports filed by the police, recorded offenses, offenses cleared and the method of clearance, characteristics of victims who reported offenses to the police, and arrestee characteristics.
Abstract
The police submitted 182,402 incident reports with a total of 222,955 offenses in 1998. The number of incident reports declined steadily between 1993 and 1997 and increased by 11.6 percent from 1997 to 1998. Property offenses accounted for two-thirds of the offenses. In contrast, sex offenses and robbery and extortion each represented less than 1 percent of offenses reported. Drug law offenses each accounted for only 1.9 percent. The total number of offenses against the person other than sex offenses increased 6.3 percent in 1998, following a period of relative stability between 1994 and 1996. The number of sex offenses increased 6.6 percent. The police cleared 40.6 percent of the offenses recorded during 1998 by the end of the year. Property offenses had the lowest clearance rate (19.1 percent), compared to 99.9 percent of driving offenses and 99.2 percent of drug law offenses. Most clearances involved the apprehension of an alleged perpetrator. The 20,836 offenses that had a personal victim involved slightly more male victims than female victims. The highest proportion of personal victimizations were among persons ages 18-24 years and 25-34 years. The police laid 79,991 charges, of which 82 percent were against males. A total of 9.7 percent of the persons apprehended were responsible for 37.5 percent of all charges laid by police. Tables, figures, appended methodological information, and 10 references