Definition

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program counts one arrest for each separate instance in which a person is arrested, cited, or summoned for an offense. The UCR Program collects arrest data on 28 offenses, as described in Offense Definitions. (Please note that, beginning in 2010, the UCR Program no longer collected data on runaways.) Because a person may be arrested multiple times during a year, the UCR arrest figures do not reflect the number of individuals who have been arrested; rather, the arrest data show the number of times that persons are arrested, as reported by law enforcement agencies to the UCR Program.

Data collection-juveniles

The UCR Program considers a juvenile to be an individual under 18 years of age regardless of state definition. The program does not collect data regarding police contact with a juvenile who has not committed an offense, nor does it collect data on situations in which police take a juvenile into custody for his or her protection, e.g., neglect cases.

Overview

  • Nationwide, law enforcement made an estimated 13,120,947 arrests (except traffic violations) in 2010. Of these arrests, 552,077 were for violent crimes and 1,643,962 were for property crimes. 
  • The highest number of arrests were for drug abuse violations (estimated at 1,638,846 arrests), driving under the influence (estimated at 1,412,223), and larceny-theft (estimated at 1,271,410). 
  • The estimated arrest rate for the United States in 2010 was 4,257.6 arrests per 100,000 inhabitants. The arrest rate for violent crime (including murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) was 179.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, and the arrest rate for property crime (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson) was 538.5 per 100,000 inhabitants. 
  • Two-year arrest trends show violent crime arrests declined 5.3 percent in 2010 when compared with 2009 arrests, and property crime arrests decreased 4.7 percent when compared with the 2009 arrests. 
  • Arrests of juveniles for all offenses decreased 9.7 percent in 2010 when compared with the 2009 number; arrests of adults declined 3.7 percent. 
  • Nearly three-quarters (74.5 percent) of the persons arrested in the Nation during 2010 were males. They accounted for 80.5 percent of persons arrested for violent crime and 62.4 percent of persons arrested for property crime. 
  • In 2010, 69.4 percent of all persons arrested were white, 28.0 percent were black, and the remaining 2.6 percent were of other races.

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