Table 25

Percent of Offenses Cleared by Arrest or Exceptional Means
by Population Group, 2008

Population group		Violent crime	Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter	Forcible rape	Robbery	Aggravated assault	Property crime	Burglary	Larceny- theft	Motor vehicle theft	Arson¹	Number of agencies	2008 estimated population
TOTAL ALL AGENCIES:	Offenses known	1,204,655	14,225	78,919	381,768	729,743	8,628,538	1,978,524	5,781,757	868,257	59,868	14,074	262,319,792
TOTAL ALL AGENCIES:	Percent cleared by arrest	45.1	63.6	40.4	26.8	54.9	17.4	12.5	19.9	12.0	17.8
TOTAL CITIES	Offenses known	945,218	10,795	58,111	327,781	548,531	6,673,088	1,445,576	4,546,371	681,141	44,295	10,155	174,772,477
TOTAL CITIES	Percent cleared by arrest	43.1	62.7	39.0	26.4	53.2	17.6	12.0	20.3	11.0	17.7
GROUP I (250,000 and over)	Offenses known	401,676	5,433	17,905	163,198	215,140	2,087,161	486,682	1,288,640	311,839	16,532	72	44,176,815
GROUP I (250,000 and over)	Percent cleared by arrest	37.9	58.6	42.2	23.6	47.8	13.2	9.5	15.7	8.6	13.2
1,000,000 and over (Group I subset)	Offenses known	123,058	1,637	5,246	54,628	61,547	623,701	141,003	378,290	104,408	5,326	8	14,369,058
1,000,000 and over (Group I subset)	Percent cleared by arrest	38.2	70.1	47.6	25.1	48.2	12.4	8.1	15.2	7.9	10.5
500,000 to 999,999 (Group I subset)	Offenses known	159,727	2,133	6,517	62,423	88,654	831,918	196,850	516,045	119,023	5,507	24	16,064,157
500,000 to 999,999 (Group I subset)	Percent cleared by arrest	36.9	53.6	41.6	21.5	47.0	12.3	9.1	14.4	8.7	14.2
250,000 to 499,999 (Group I subset)	Offenses known	118,891	1,663	6,142	46,147	64,939	631,542	148,829	394,305	88,408	5,699	40	13,743,600
250,000 to 499,999 (Group I subset)	Percent cleared by arrest	38.9	53.8	38.1	24.7	48.7	15.1	11.3	17.8	9.4	14.9
GROUP II (100,000 to 249,999)	Offenses known	168,868	1,993	10,229	62,075	94,571	1,201,078	269,014	801,783	130,281	7,209	190	28,236,007
GROUP II (100,000 to 249,999)	Percent cleared by arrest	42.5	64.6	38.8	26.2	53.0	16.8	11.3	19.8	9.9	16.4
GROUP III (50,000 to 99,999)	Offenses known	133,570	1,316	9,277	42,981	79,996	1,052,700	223,771	731,207	97,722	6,925	436	29,790,618
GROUP III (50,000 to 99,999)	Percent cleared by arrest	45.2	63.4	35.7	29.0	54.7	19.4	13.2	22.5	11.0	17.9
GROUP IV (25,000 to 49,999)	Offenses known	89,983	804	7,278	26,231	55,670	809,060	161,951	589,635	57,474	4,912	726	24,893,513
GROUP IV (25,000 to 49,999)	Percent cleared by arrest	48.1	71.4	35.4	30.9	57.6	20.3	12.5	23.1	13.3	19.7
GROUP V (10,000 to 24,999)	Offenses known	81,526	688	7,164	20,738	52,936	808,115	164,708	594,376	49,031	4,372	1,623	25,613,592
GROUP V (10,000 to 24,999)	Percent cleared by arrest	51.6	70.9	38.4	32.7	60.5	22.2	14.7	24.6	17.9	25.7
GROUP VI (under 10,000)	Offenses known	69,595	561	6,258	12,558	50,218	714,974	139,450	540,730	34,794	4,345	7,108	22,061,932
GROUP VI (under 10,000)	Percent cleared by arrest	54.5	70.8	40.3	34.0	61.2	20.7	16.3	21.7	22.1	26.7
METROPOLITAN COUNTIES	Offenses known	208,390	2,577	14,963	49,882	140,968	1,551,116	400,225	994,354	156,537	12,241	1,661	63,542,081
METROPOLITAN COUNTIES	Percent cleared by arrest	51.2	65.8	44.0	28.3	59.8	16.7	13.2	18.5	14.3	17.0
NONMETROPOLITAN COUNTIES	Offenses known	51,047	853	5,845	4,105	40,244	404,334	132,723	241,032	30,579	3,332	2,258	24,005,234
NONMETROPOLITAN COUNTIES	Percent cleared by arrest	57.7	68.1	44.9	39.0	61.3	17.9	16.0	18.1	23.8	22.1
SUBURBAN AREAS²	Offenses known	353,856	3,783	26,770	89,943	233,360	3,036,247	687,409	2,090,633	258,205	20,465	7,462	114,616,380
SUBURBAN AREAS²	Percent cleared by arrest	51.1	66.7	41.4	29.7	60.2	18.6	13.6	20.7	14.6	19.8

¹ Not all agencies submit reports for arson to the FBI. As a result, the number of reports the FBI uses to compute the percent of offenses cleared for arson is less than the number it uses to compute the percent of offenses cleared for all other offenses.
² Suburban areas include law enforcement agencies in cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants and county law enforcement agencies that are within a Metropolitan Statistical Area. Suburban areas exclude all metropolitan agencies associated with a principal city. The agencies associated with suburban areas also appear in other groups within this table.

Data Declaration

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Overview

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More than 14,000 (14,074) agencies provided clearance data to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program in 2008.
Nationwide in 2008, 45.1 percent of violent crimes were cleared by arrest or exceptional means.
Law enforcement agencies cleared 17.4 percent of property crimes in 2008.
Among all cities, those with populations of less than 10,000 inhabitants cleared the highest percentage (54.5) of violent crimes.
Cities with populations of 10,000 to 24,999 inhabitants cleared 22.2 percent of property crimes, the highest percentage of clearances among city groupings.
Nonmetropolitan county law enforcement agencies cleared 57.7 percent of violent crimes in 2008; metropolitan county law enforcement agencies cleared 51.2 percent of violent crimes.
Law enforcement agencies in nonmetropolitan counties cleared 17.9 percent of property crimes; law enforcement agencies in metropolitan counties cleared 16.7 percent of property crimes.