Priority Indicator #24: Rate of Crimes Against People

• Total Arrest Rate for Crimes Against People
• Rate of Juvenile Arrests for Crimes Against People

Total Arrest Rate for Crimes Against People

Contents: Background Information | Data Tables | Data Charts | Commentary | Download Data
New: Person Crimes Data Map (Internet Explorer Users: zoom to full extent for best map quality)

Background Information

What Does This Indicator Mean?
The rate of crimes against people is a measure of the non-property crimes in a region.  Non-property crimes include assault, homicide, rape and other types of crimes against people.  A higher rate of personal crimes is often indicative of broader social dysfunction, including high rates of poverty, alcohol and drug use and declining economic indicators.

Referring to a specific time period and geographic region, this indicator measures the total number of arrests for crimes against people divided by the total population of the region, multiplied by 1,000 to determine the rate.

Because arrests are reported by the police department or sheriff’s office making the arrest, and not by the residence address of the arrestee, these rates will vary greatly as a result of political decisions within a region  Further, the jurisdictions of law enforcement agencies overlap in many cases, skewing the city-level rates for this measure.

Other Risk Factors or Indicators to Consider
Crimes against people are often related to levels of drug and alcohol abuse, spousal and child abuse, unemployment and poverty within a community.  While the direct relationships between these factors is not always clear, when analyzing this indicator, examination of these additional indicators is recommended. Geographic measures such as population density and proximity to major cities may also be considered.

Political decisions also play a major role in determining this indicator.  Factors such as legislation which provides for stiffer criminal penalties, the ratio of police to population, funding for projects aimed at reducing crime and the existence of programs targeted at reducing alcohol and drug abuse will all affect the rate of arrests.

Limitations of the Data
The rate of arrests for crimes against people should be taken only as a representative measure for the total level of criminal activity in the region.  To the extent that crimes in an area go unreported this measure will be artificially low.  This is especially the case with events such as bias crimes and rape which are traditionally highly under reported.  On the other hand, while the number of arrests can be directly correlated with the number of convictions, the two measures are not equal and convictions are generally substantially lower.

These data are reported by the individual law enforcement agencies within a region.  There is no means of verification that a particular agency has reported all arrests for a given time period, though these data are considered highly accurate and reliable.

These data most certainly under report the number of arrests due to reporting procedures.  If an individual is arrested on more than one charge (e.g., DUII and vehicular manslaughter) only the most serious crime (manslaughter) is captured in the data collection system.  This is a national norm that began in the 1930’s and is considered standard practice as part of the Uniform Crime Reporting process nationwide.

Percentages presented for the purpose of evaluating this indicator are grouped together by incorporated city to ensure statistical validity. When fewer than five cases are reported within a region, the rate is not calculated as the information is not considered statistically reliable.

Data Sources

• Arrest figures are from the Oregon Law Enforcement Data System (LEDS) Oregon Uniform Crime Reporting Program

• City population data are from the US Census Bureau

• County population data are from Portland State University Center for Population Research

The table below shows the number of arrests reported in each place in the year 2000, the city's population, and its rate of arrests per 1,000 people for crimes against people.

The chart below shows total arrest rates per 1,000 persons for crimes against people in Marion and Polk Counties in 1997-2000.  

Commentary

Total arrests rates for crimes against people have decreased in Marion and Polk Counties in recent years.  The Polk County rate has declined steadily, while the Marion County rate dropped sharply in 1999 and remained steady in 2000.  The rate in Marion County remains higher than that of Polk County.

Arrest rates for crimes against people have declined in Salem, Woodburn, and Dallas.  For other places, rates have fluctuated somewhat randomly.  This fluctuation may be due at least in part to the fact that the numbers of arrests are so low for smaller cities, so that one additional arrest will cause the rate to increase significantly. 

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Download Data in Microsoft Excel 

Download Data as a Tab Delimited Text File (Windows users: right click on this link, save file, and then open in your favorite spreadsheet; Mac users: click the link and hold for a second or two, then save the file and open it in a spreadsheet)

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Rate of Juvenile Crimes Against People

Contents: Data Tables | Data Charts | Commentary | Download Data
New: Juvenile Person Crimes Data Map (Internet Explorer Users: zoom to full extent for best map quality)

The table below shows the rates of juvenile arrests for crimes against people per 1,000 people.  It gives the totals for Marion and Polk County and rates for places within the two counties.

The chart below shows rates of juvenile arrests per 1,000 people for crimes against people in Marion and Polk Counties. 

Commentary

Arrest rates in Marion and Polk Counties have fluctuated over time, with both seeing a consistent and substantial downturn in recent years.  From 1997 through 2000 the rate in Marion County was above that in Polk County.

Download the Data

Download Data in Microsoft Excel 

Download Data as a Tab Delimited Text File (Windows users: right click on this link, save file, and then open in your favorite spreadsheet; Mac users: click the link and hold for a second or two, then save the file and open it in a spreadsheet)

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