Crime in the United States

Crime in the United States
Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer · Public domain · source
Name	Crime in the United States
Country	United States

Contents

Crime in the United States describes the incidence, measurement, institutions, actors, and responses to illegal acts across the United States. Coverage spans federal statutes such as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, landmark decisions like Miranda v. Arizona, federal agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and local institutions such as the New York Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department. Scholarship and reporting appear in outlets and institutions like the United States Department of Justice, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Pew Research Center, and the Urban Institute.

Overview and Definitions

Criminal law in the United States is divided between federal statutes in the United States Code and state codes such as the California Penal Code and the Texas Penal Code, shaped by precedents from the United States Supreme Court and appellate courts like the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Definitions of offenses—murder, robbery, larceny, fraud—derive from common law traditions imported from English law and modified through statutes such as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Mann Act. Measurement tools include the Uniform Crime Reports compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Crime Victimization Survey administered by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and censuses such as the United States Census Bureau that provide denominators for rate calculations.

Longitudinal studies document fluctuations: homicide rates rose during the late 1960s and peaked in the early 1990s before declining through the 2010s, with recent upticks tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's injury data and the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago analyze links between trends and factors including incarceration rates tracked by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, policing strategies from agencies like the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, and economic indicators from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. High-profile analyses appear in journals affiliated with American University, Columbia University, and Stanford University, while think tanks such as the Brookings Institution and the Cato Institute produce policy reports.

Violent offenses cover murder and nonnegligent homicide, aggravated assault, and robbery; cases prosecuted in federal courts include terrorism charges handled by the United States Attorney General and the Department of Homeland Security. Property crimes such as burglary and motor vehicle theft show in FBI data and state prosecutorial dockets like those in Cook County, Illinois and Miami-Dade County, Florida. White-collar and corporate offenses prosecuted under statutes like the Sarbanes–Oxley Act involve actors such as executives from companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and cases litigated in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Drug crimes involve controlled substances regulated under the Controlled Substances Act and enforcement by agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration and state counterparts in Ohio and California. Cybercrime cases prosecuted in venues such as the United States District Court for the Northern District of California implicate firms like Microsoft and Facebook and incidents exposed by groups such as WikiLeaks.

Law enforcement is multi-layered: federal agencies—Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives—work alongside state police like the California Highway Patrol and local departments such as the Chicago Police Department and the Philadelphia Police Department. Prosecution occurs through offices like the United States Attorney General’s Office, state attorneys general such as in New York (state) and Texas, and county district attorneys in offices like Los Angeles County District Attorney and Maricopa County Attorney. Adjudication is carried out in courts from municipal courts to the Supreme Court of the United States; sentencing and corrections involve state departments such as the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and federal institutions run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Oversight, reform, and civil litigation often reference decisions like Gideon v. Wainwright and Terry v. Ohio and advocacy from organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Empirical literature from scholars at Yale University, Princeton University, Duke University, and Rutgers University links crime to factors including neighborhood disadvantage studied in Chicago (city) research, unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and drug markets shaped by international trafficking routes through Mexico and Colombia. Other risk factors examined in reports by the National Institute of Justice and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation include exposure to firearms regulated under debates over the Second Amendment, mental health issues handled by systems like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and educational disparities tracked by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Prevention and policy responses range from policing models like CompStat used by the New York City Police Department, community-based programs run by nonprofits such as the Urban League and Habitat for Humanity affiliates, to legislative reforms like criminal justice bills debated in the United States Congress and state legislatures in California and New York (state). Reentry initiatives coordinate with the Department of Labor and civic groups including the National Reentry Resource Center, while technology-driven interventions involve surveillance vendors and standards from bodies like the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Debates over reform often cite proposals from the Sentencing Project, analyses by the Vera Institute of Justice, and court rulings such as Brown v. Plata that affect incarceration policy.