Crime Statistics and Reporting

The Uniform Crime Reports

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's publication Crime in the United States employs four racial categories: White, Black, American Indian or Alaskan Native, and Asian or Pacific Islander. Not included in the data is ethnicity. Beginning in 1960, a Crime Index was calculated using the first seven crimes listed in the Part I crimes cited previously. The Crime Index was later modified to include the crime of arson. Criticism of the Crime [Page 162]Index led to the suspension of the Crime Index category in 2004. The eight Part I offenses are still used in the calculation of violent crime and property crime rates in the United States.

Table 1 enumerates the arrests for Part I offenses by race for the year 2006. Racial differences in arrests are readily apparent. Examining arrest percentages separately for each racial group highlights one of the controversies surrounding these statistics. Three of the highest arrest percentages for Whites involve offenses from the property crime index. Arson (76%), burglary (69%), and larceny-theft (68.6%) represent the top three offenses for which Whites are arrested. A different picture emerges when Blacks are examined. Three of the top four crime categories are violent crimes: robbery (56.3%), murder and nonnegligent manslaughter (50.9%), and aggravated assault (34.5%). Only motor vehicle theft (34.9%) involves a nonviolent crime. Moreover, the violent crime and property crime indexes reflect these racial differences: the higher index for Whites is the property crime index (68.2% for property crimes versus 58.5% for violent crimes), whereas the higher index for Blacks is the violent crime index (39.3% for violent crimes versus 29.4% for property crimes). Because the percentages for the racial categories of American Indian or Alaskan Native and Asian or Pacific Islander provide little variation (from 0.7% to 1.4%), these racial groups tend to be largely ignored in the criminal justice literature. Consequently, researchers focus on racial differences between White and Black arrestees.

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