Crime in the United States, 2012

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released its Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report for January - December, 2012.

The statistics "indicate that, as a whole, law enforcement agencies throughout the nation reported an increase of 1.2 percent in the number of violent crimes brought to their attention for 2012 when compared with figures reported for 2011. The violent crime category includes murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Collectively, the number of property crimes in the United States in 2012 decreased 0.8 percent when compared with data from 2011. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Arson is also a property crime, but data for arson are not included in property crime totals. Figures for 2012 indicate that arson decreased 1.2 percent when compared with 2011 figures."

The figures are presented in tables on the site, and "were submitted voluntarily by law enforcement agencies throughout the country."

"The data presented in Tables 1 and 2 indicate the percent change in offenses known to law enforcement for 2012 compared with those for 2011 by population group and region, respectively. Table 3 reflects the percent change in offenses reported within the nation for consecutive years (each year compared with the prior year). Table 4 presents the number of offenses known to law enforcement for agencies with a resident population of 100,000 and over and that provided 12 months of complete data for 2012. All data in this 'Report' are preliminary."

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