FBI Releases 2017 Crime Statistics, Updates Online Crime Data Explorer

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has unveiled this week its 2017 annual crime statistics dataset, updating its online Crime Data Explorer tool to allow the public to examine changes in crime trends, as measured by the FBI. The tool was first released last year.

The new annual data shows that violent crime decreased .2 percent from 2016 to 2017, and that property crime decreased by 3 percent during the same period. According to the FBI, the data comes from the agency’s “Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program,” which features the cooperation of more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies nationally.

“It’s an interactive tool that allows law enforcement and public users to more easily understand UCR crime data on a national level,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a message accompanying the report. “We’re upgrading the database and publishing data sets more routinely, so that we’ll have a better understanding of what’s happening in our communities.”

Overall, UCR tallied more than 1.2 million reports of violent crimes throughout 2017, with a category breakdown shown below.

In addition to the modest decreases in violent and property crimes, murders decreased by 0.7 percent, robberies are down 4 percent, instances of burglary are down 7.6 percent, while larceny-thefts are down 2.2 percent.

The online tool also tracks police employment across the United States, indicating that between 2016 and 2017, the rate of police officers per 1,000 United States inhabitants went from 2.4 per 1,000 to 2.0 per 1,000.