29 September 2018 :
More data available from "Crime in the United States, 2017" (CIUS). As we have already seen, for the year 2017 the report (issued by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation) counts 17,284 murders. In 2016 there were 17,413, 15,696, in 2015, 14,164 in 2014, and 14,139 in 2013. The steep increase in the last 2 years is interpreted not as an actual increase in killings, but rather as an increased accuracy in data collection.
In recent years, in fact, two extensive studies conducted by the mass media on these data collected by the FBI estimated that about 2,000 murders per year were not recorded. The FBI recognizes the incompleteness of its data, explained by the fact that local police are not obliged to provide any updates related to this type of "crime". In the last 2 editions of CIUS it added in its tables that the data are provided "on a voluntary basis by more than 18,000 national, university or college, state, tribal and federal police bodies who voluntarily participate in the program".
Some data on homicides are interesting, but the authors report having worked on incomplete data.
In 2017, most (78.4 percent) of the 15,129 murder victims for whom supplemental data were received were male. Of the murder victims for whom race was known, 51.9 percent were Black or African American, 43.5 percent were White, and 3.0 percent were of other races. Race was unknown for 243 victims. More than 45 percent (45.6) of all murders for which the UCR Program received supplemental data were single victim/single offender situations. Of the offenders for whom gender was known, 88.1 percent were male. When the race of the offender was known, 54.2 percent were Black or African American, 43.1 percent were White, and 2.6 percent were of other races. The race was unknown for 5,368 offenders. More than 72 percent (72.6) of the homicides for which the FBI received weapons data in 2017 involved the use of firearms. Handguns comprised 64.0 percent of the firearms used in murder incidents in 2017. In 2017, 28.0 percent of homicide victims were killed by someone they knew other than family members (acquaintance, neighbor, friend, boyfriend, etc.), 12.3 percent were slain by family members, and 9.7 percent were killed by strangers. The relationship between murder victims and offenders was unknown in 50.0 percent of murder incidents. Circumstances were known for 59.8 percent of murders for which supplementary details were reported in 2017. Of those, 39.0 percent of victims were murdered during arguments and romantic triangles. Felony-type murders (i.e., murders that occurred in conjunction with the commission of another felony crime such as rape, robbery, burglary, etc.) accounted for 24.7 percent of homicides for which circumstances were known.
To the 17,250 homicides must be added the so-called "justifiable homicides", ie those carried out by the police in the performance of their functions, or by private citizens for what is considered legitimate defense. In 2017, according to the FBI, the police killed 429 "felons" (the term indicates that according to the police were guilty of something), while 353 people who were committing crimes were killed by private citizens.
This year's report corrects upwards the figures provided for 2016: the number of police victims in 2016 was indicated in 429, now they are increased to 444.
The number with +6 units (from 331 to 337) is also corrected. of "legitimately" killed by the citizens in 2016. The data of the murders committed by the police has been challenged by some online databases compiled by volunteers who estimate about / over 1,000 a year the victims of the police.
also the number of people "legitimately" killed by the citizens in 2016 is corrected with +6 units (from 331 to 337). The data of the murders committed by the police has been challenged by some online databases compiled by volunteers who estimate about / over 1,000 a year the victims of the police.
According to the Washington Post's "Fatal Force", 987 people were killed by police in 2017. According to "Fatal Encounters" there were 1,750 dead in 2017. According to "The Counted" (The Guardian), the dead numbered 1093 in 2016, including 20 minors. The Counted appears to have stopped recording data after December 2016.
A scientific article published on 10 October 2017 on "PLoS Medicine" compares the various independent databases, and tries to calculate the statistical discrepancies. It concludes that police forces tend to provide only data on "justified homicides" as they try to gloss over people killed "by mistake", while independent databases count them. In the databases, for example, there are dozens of cases of police victims who are only a few months or a few years old, so difficult to consider "felons", but at the same time certainly victims of some form of force abuse.
Returning to the general report of the FBI, the United States is divided into four macrozones. As has been the case for a long time, the lowest homicide rate (3.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) is recorded in the North-East, in an area of the country where the death penalty has been almost completely abolished for some time. Within the Northeast macro zone, New England (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, all abolitionist states, except New Hampshire, which has not carried out executions since 1939) has an even lower rate: 2.3x100.000.
The states with the most homicides are Illinois (997, with 12.8 million inhabitants), Florida (1.057, with 20.9 million inhabitants), Texas (1.412, with 28.3 million inhabitants) and California (1.830, with 39.5 million inhabitants). The states that have less homicides (but also less inhabitants) are: North Dakota (10, with 750,000 inhabitants); New Hampshire (14, with 1.3 million inhabitants); Vermont (14, with 600,000 inhabitants); Wyoming (15, with 580,000 inhabitants). As for the homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants, the most neutral data, the highest is recorded in Puerto Rico (20.3); District of Columbia (16.7); Louisiana (12.4); Missouri (9.8); Nevada (9.1); and Maryland (9.0).
On the whole the highest homicide rate (6.4) is, as always, that of the South, where the use of the death penalty is by far the highest in the country.
To have a measure of comparison, in Italy ("Delitti denunciati dalle forze di polizia all'autorità giudiziaria" by ISTAT) in 2016 there were 397 murders, and 355 in 2017. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior ("Rapporto sulla criminalità in Italia") the murders were a little fewer: 389 in 2016 and 343 in 2017. In Italy in recent years the highest number of murders was recorded in 1991, with 1.916. Since then it has always been decreasing.
With the current numbers, the Italian homicide rate is lower than 0.6. According to Eurostat data published in August 2018 referring to 2016, in Europe (European Union) 13 states have a homicide rate lower than 1×100.000. These countries are: (starting from the lowest) Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece, Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Germany and Northern Ireland. Another 11 countries have a rate of less than 1.5x100.000: Croatia, Sweden, Slovakia, Scotland, Bulgaria, Malta, England and Wales, Romania, Cyprus, France and Finland.
In the European Community only Latvia (5.6) and Lithuania (4.9) have a rate comparable to the US. In Europe (outside the European Union) Russia, with 10.8x100.000 has a double homicide rate than the average US.
Overall, just over 10.5 million arrests were made in the US. Table 29 of the report shows data on 26 "crime categories": 1.6 million people have been arrested for drug offenses, 1.25 million for "property offenses", 990,000 for driving under the effect of alcohol or drugs, 950,000 for theft, 518,000 for "violent crimes" (of which 12.208 for murder), over 920 thousand for crimes related to liquor laws, drunkenness, or disorderly conduct, 23,000 for rape (out of 135,000 cases reported), and 480,000 for robbery or aggravated assault. 73% of those arrested are male. In 2017, 68.9% of those arrested were white, 27.2% were black, and the remaining 3.9% were of other races.
The report contains many other data, including the number of sworn officers and civilian personnel of the various law enforcement agencies across the United States. As a general media, there would be 2.4 sworn officers per 1,000 inhabitants in the United States, plus 1 civilian personnel. Detailed "administrative" information was provided "only" by 13.128 police bodies. These 13,128 bodies in the complex have 956,000 full time employees, counting agents (70%) and civilians. 73.2% of sworn officers + civilian personnel is male, 26.8 is female.
An estimate of the number of detainees in US prisons updated as of December 31, 2017 was made by the VERA Institute of Justice. According to the "People in Prison in 2017" report, 1,306,300 people were held in state prisons (-9,900 compared to the previous year), 183,300 in federal prisons (-5,900 compared to the previous year). However, this report does not take into account county and local prisons.
To have complete data we must refer to the report “Prisoners In 2016” (NCJ 251149) published in January 2018, which however has data updated to December 31, 2016.
In the 102 federal prisons and 1,719 US state prisons there were 1,51 million people, with a decrease of 21,200 units (1%) compared to a year before, and of 56,200 units compared to 2014.
According to another official report (Correctional Populations in the United States, 2016 - NCJ 251211) another 740,700 people would be detained in the 3,163 local prisons [as it is known, in the United States two different terms are used: Prison is the state or federal prison, Jail is the local prison]. The US prison system also has 80 local prisons in Indian counties, 1,852 juvenile centers, military prisons, immigration detention centers, state psychiatric hospitals and post-detention centers.
Adding these different categories of "detention", the total number of people who are defined "under the supervision of adult correctional systems" is 6,613,500 (62,700 less than the previous year): 2,162,400 people actually held, and 4,537,100 in alternative regimes.
According to a Prison Policy Initiative study (Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2017), women in federal, state and local prisons were 219,000, just under 10% of the total. uveniles a little less than 50,000. About 128,300 prisoners from 30 states and the federal circuit are held in prisons run by private societies.
The total number of prisoners is decreasing slowly but steadily from 2007 to today. In proportion to the population the decline in 10 years was 18%. The detention rate in 2016 was 830 people held per 100,000 inhabitants (0.83% uf US citizens). The percentage of US citizens who fell within the definition of "under the supervision of correctional systems" (including therefore alternative regimes), in 2016 was 2.64%.
