WebJunction

** Data is derived from The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report and may not be available for all years, depending on the compliance of the reporting agency.

Example #1

The BJS Data Online allows you to, among other things, construct tables chronicling crime trends based on multiple variables.   Variables include local reporting agencies (police departments that serve communities of 10,000 or more -- from 1985) as well as state and national totals (from 1960).  For any of these localities you can find data on number of violent or property crimes, rate of violent or property crime, or both for the years indicated above through 2005**.

You would like to see if and how the rate of violent crime in Golden Colorado has changed from 1990-2004.

1. From the  BJS Data Online site (http://bjsdata.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/index.cfm) select the “Crime Trends from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report” link.

2. Click on “All agencies”

3. Under “Select a table type” click on the “single agency trends” option.

4. From the State drop-down menu select Colorado and from the population groups menu select “Cities from 10,000 to 24,999”.  Then click on “Next”.

5. Under the choose an agency (a) menu, scroll down and select “Golden Police Dept.”, from the variable groups (b) menu select “violent crime rates”, and under years to include (c) change the “from” year to 1990, and the “to” year to 2004.

6. Click on the “Get Table” button to see the table that you have created!  You will notice that the rate is defined as per 100,000 population and that, in addition to the total for all violent crime, the rate is further broken down into specific types of violent crime.

Example #2

This source can also be used to explore homicide trends and characteristics for states (since 1976) and local agencies that serve communities of 250,000 or more (since 1985).   Characteristics covered include age of victim, gender, race, and weapon used.

A patron is doing research on how gun control measures have, or have not, affected homicide trends.  She would like to compare data on the race of victims and the type of weapon used in reported California and New York homicides between 1995 and 1998.

1. From the  BJS Data Online site (http://bjsdata.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/index.cfm) select “Homicide Trends and Characteristics”.

2. Click on “State”.

3. Under “Select a table type” click on the “State-by-State” option.

4. Under the years to include (a) change the “from” year to 1995, and the “to” year to 1998, from the variables group (b) select “race group (SHR)” and “Weapon type (SHR)” (to select the second variable you will have to hold down the control key when you click on it), from the states (c) menu select “California” and “New York”.  (Again, you will have to hold down the control key to select the second state.)

5. Click on the “Get Table” button to see the tables that you have created!