Number and Rate of Arrests
by Population Group, 2008
The FBI collects these data through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.
General comments
- This table provides the number of persons arrested and the arrest rate per 100,000 inhabitants for the eight UCR population groups (see below), U.S. cities as a whole, and for the Nation in 2008.
- The UCR Program collects arrest data for 29 offenses.
- These data represent the number of persons arrested; however, some persons may be arrested more than once during a year. Therefore, the statistics in this table could, in some cases, represent multiple arrests of the same person.
Methodology
- The data used in creating this table were from all law enforcement agencies submitting 12 months of arrest data for 2008.
- The FBI derived the arrest rates by first dividing the total aggregated arrests by the aggregated populations covered by contributing agencies and then multiplying the resulting figure by 100,000.
- The FBI publishes only data that conform to UCR data collection guidelines. The data collection methodology for arrests for forcible rape used by the state Program administered by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (with the exception of Minneapolis and St. Paul) does not comply with these guidelines. Therefore, arrests for forcible rape for Minnesota are not available for inclusion in this table. Instead, the FBI computed the number and the rate by estimating the forcible rape arrests for each population group for participating agencies in Minnesota. The figures were estimated using the national forcible rape numbers for each population group applied to the population by group for Minnesota agencies.
Population estimation
For the 2008 population estimates used in this table, the FBI computed individual rates of growth from one year to the next for every city/town and county using 2000 decennial population counts and 2001 through 2007 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Each agency’s rates of growth were averaged; that average was then applied and added to its 2007 Census population estimate to derive the agency’s 2008 population estimate.
Population groups
The UCR Program uses the following population group designations:
| I |
City |
250,000 and more |
| II |
City |
100,000 to 249,999 |
| III |
City |
50,000 to 99,999 |
| IV |
City |
25,000 to 49,999 |
| V |
City |
10,000 to 24,999 |
| VI1,2 |
City |
Less than 10,000 |
| VIII (Nonmetropolitan County)2 |
County |
N/A |
| IX (Metropolitan County)2 |
County |
N/A |
1Includes universities and colleges to which no population is attributed.
2Includes state police to which no population is attributed.
If you have questions about this table
Contact the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division via e-mail at cjis_comm@leo.gov or by telephone at (304) 625-4995.