Crime Statistics Glossary
Definitions for 35 crime statistics and public safety terms used by the FBI, law enforcement, and CrimeContext. Every term explained with context — not jargon.
Crime Types
Aggravated Assault
An unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe bodily injury, typically involving a weapon or resulting in serious harm.
Arson
The willful or malicious burning or attempted burning of property, including structures, vehicles, and personal property.
Burglary
The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft, regardless of whether force was used to gain entry.
Hate Crime
A criminal offense motivated in whole or part by bias against a race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
Juvenile Crime
Criminal offenses committed by individuals under 18 years of age, tracked separately from adult crime in most jurisdictions.
Larceny-Theft
The unlawful taking of property from another person without the use of force, violence, or fraud — the most common crime in America.
Motor Vehicle Theft
The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle, including automobiles, trucks, buses, motorcycles, and snowmobiles.
Murder Rate
The number of murders and non-negligent manslaughters per 100,000 residents in a given jurisdiction.
Property Crime
Offenses involving the taking or destruction of property without force or threat of force, including burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
Robbery
The taking or attempted taking of anything of value from a person by force, threat of force, or by putting the victim in fear.
Violent Crime
Offenses that involve force or the threat of force against a person, including murder, robbery, aggravated assault, and rape.
Statistics & Data
Crime Mapping
The use of geographic information systems (GIS) to visualize and analyze the spatial patterns of crime within a community.
Crime Rate vs Crime Count
The critical distinction between the total number of crimes (count) and the number of crimes per 100,000 residents (rate), which changes how safety is understood.
Crime Trend
The direction and rate of change in crime rates over a period of time, showing whether a city or region is becoming safer or more dangerous.
Dark Figure of Crime
The gap between the actual amount of crime that occurs and the amount reported to and recorded by law enforcement, meaning true crime levels are always higher than official statistics show.
Per-Capita Crime Rate
The number of crimes per 100,000 residents in a given area, allowing fair comparison between communities of different sizes.
Seasonal Crime Patterns
The predictable variation in crime rates by season, with most crime types peaking during summer months and declining in winter.
The Great Crime Decline
The sustained, dramatic decrease in crime rates across the United States from the early 1990s peak through the 2010s, one of the most significant social trends in modern American history.
Data Reporting
Crime Data Explorer
The FBI's public web tool and API for accessing detailed crime statistics from the UCR program, available at crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov.
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR)
The FBI program that collects and publishes crime data from law enforcement agencies across the United States, serving as the primary national crime database.
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
The modernized FBI crime reporting system that captures detailed data on each criminal incident, replacing the older Summary Reporting System.
Uniform Crime Reporting
The standardized system of crime data definitions and collection procedures used by law enforcement agencies to report crime statistics to the FBI.
Victimization Survey
A research method that asks people directly about their crime experiences, capturing data on unreported crimes that official police statistics miss.
Law Enforcement
Clearance Rate
The percentage of reported crimes that result in an arrest or are otherwise "cleared" by law enforcement, indicating how effectively police solve crimes.
Community Policing
A law enforcement philosophy that promotes organizational strategies to build trust and collaborative partnerships between police and the communities they serve.
Hot-Spot Policing
A data-driven strategy that concentrates law enforcement resources on small geographic areas where crime is most concentrated.
Law Enforcement Staffing
The number of sworn police officers per capita in a jurisdiction, which can influence crime rates, response times, and clearance rates.
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
Laws that require judges to impose a minimum prison term for certain offenses, removing judicial discretion and affecting incarceration rates and potentially crime rates.
Recidivism
The tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend, typically measured by rearrest, reconviction, or reincarceration within a set time period after release.
Crime Prevention
Broken Windows Theory
A criminological theory that visible signs of disorder and neglect (like broken windows) encourage further crime and anti-social behavior.
Crime Displacement
The theory that crime prevention efforts in one area simply push criminal activity to nearby areas rather than actually reducing total crime.
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)
A multi-disciplinary approach to reducing crime through the design of the built environment, including lighting, sightlines, landscaping, and building layout.
Socioeconomic Factors in Crime
The economic and social conditions — including poverty, unemployment, inequality, and education levels — that research consistently links to higher crime rates.
Metrics & Scoring
Crime Index
A composite numerical score that combines multiple crime metrics into a single value for comparing the overall crime level of different areas.
Safety Context Score
CrimeContext's proprietary A-F grading system that evaluates city safety using per-capita crime rates, national benchmarks, and 5-year trend data.
All Terms (A-Z)
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between violent crime and property crime?
Violent crimes involve force or the threat of force against a person (murder, robbery, aggravated assault, rape). Property crimes involve taking or destroying property without force (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson). The FBI tracks both categories separately in UCR data.
Why should I use per-capita crime rates instead of total crime numbers?
Per-capita rates (crimes per 100,000 residents) let you compare cities of any size fairly. A city of 2 million will always have more total crimes than a town of 20,000, but that does not make it less safe per person. Always compare rates, not counts.
What does the Safety Context Score measure?
The Safety Context Score grades cities A through F based on three factors: per-capita violent crime rate vs the national average (40%), per-capita property crime rate vs the national average (25%), and 5-year crime trend direction (20%), plus a national benchmark (15%).