Uniform Crime Data Report

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program was conceived in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to meet a need for reliable, uniform crime statistics for the nation. In 1930, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) was tasked with collecting, publishing, and archiving those statistics (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 2007). Today, the FBI produces a Uniform Crime Report (UCR) annually for all fifty (50) states and the cities within those states from statistic collected from all police enforcement agencies. The UCR lists violent crimes and property crimes and categorizes each separate crime under those offenses. I have selected to discuss the crime of larceny theft for the two (2) metropolitan areas of Washington D.C., Washington, and Chicago, Illinois. In the following I will identify the number of occurrences, what the rates were, did the rates change over time, and what factors could explain a change for both areas.

First, larceny theft is typically defined as the taking of almost anything of value without the consent of the owner, with the intent to permanently deprive him or her of the value of the property taken. The two areas for the purposes of this paper do not include weapons used to commit the theft. Most states recognize degrees of theft, such as "grand" or "petty," which usually relate to the value of the property taken (Your Dictionary, 2007). For the two areas I have chosen, identity theft is included for the intention of data calculated under larceny theft. Wile researching the UCR, I was able to find statistics for the calendar years of 2001 until 2005 for both metropolitan areas. Below is a table for each area for viewing purposes only in which the year, population, and statistics for the crime are listed.

Chicago-Illinois

Year Population Larceny Theft

2001 2,910,707 97,496

2002 2,938,297 96,380

2003 2,898,224 96,779

2004 2,882,515 93,375

2005 2,873,130 83,373

2006 2,842,150 83,507

Washington D.C.

Year Population Larceny Theft

2001 573,822 22,313

2002 569,157 21,708

2003 557,620 18,119

2004 554,239 14,542

2005 582,049 14,836

2006 581,530 15,907

According to the UCR, larceny theft in 2004 occurred 93,375 times in Chicago, Illinois compared to 14,542 times in Washington D.C. For the calendar year of 2005 it occurred 83,373 times in Chicago and 14,836 times in Washington. With the populations of both these cities being substantially different it is easy to decipher that Chicago had a lot more reported larceny theft than Washington in all years combined. Chicago had a larceny theft rate of about 3,239.4 per 100,000 people with Washington D.C. only having 2,623.8 per 100,000 people. Chicago had 2,901.8 for the year of 2005 and Washington D.C. had 2,548.9 in 2005 per 100,000 people. Chicago had 2922.1 for the year of 2006 and Washington had 2,735.4 per 100,000 people. Between the years of 2004 until 2005 for Washington D.C. area the larceny theft rate changed but not by much, it declined by a few hundred. In Chicago for the years of 2004 until 2005 the larceny theft rate changed dramatically almost by 10,000. In 2006 the rate increased for Washington, and stayed