Violent Crime in the U.S

Violent crime in the United States encompasses serious offenses such as murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, which involve the use or threat of force. According to the FBI, violent crime is tracked through the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, and comprehensive data is compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2021, an estimated 4.6 million violent crimes were reported, resulting in a national rate of 16.5 incidents per 1,000 individuals, a significant decline from 1993 levels. However, reporting rates vary, with only about 46% of urban violent crimes reaching authorities.

While murder represents a smaller fraction of violent crime, the U.S. saw a sharp increase in murder rates in the aftermath of 2020, highlighting concerns about safety and community wellbeing. Additionally, gang violence plays a substantial role in overall crime rates, with estimates suggesting that gangs are responsible for 65-85% of violent incidents in their operational areas.

The relationship between violent crime and underlying social factors such as economic status, drug use, and interpersonal conflicts is complex, necessitating multifaceted approaches to prevention and intervention. Understanding the nuances of violent crime, including its definitions, prevalence, and contributing factors, is crucial for addressing the challenges it poses to communities across the nation.

Published in: 2023

By: Harbeck, Karen M.

Subject Terms

Violent Crime in the U.S.

Abstract

According to the United States Justice Department, violent crime includes murder, rape and sexual assault, robbery, and assault. Detailed crime data concerning all types of violent offenses is provided. Research data and theoretical analysis about murder is considered along with a brief review of the relationship of organized crime and gang violence to the overall rate of violent crime in the United States.

Overview

What is Violent Crime? Violent crime is defined in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program as offenses involving "force or the threat of force," categorized into murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2020). The classification of all the Justice Department crime data is based upon the decisions of police investigators rather than upon any final determination by a coroner, court, or other judicial body. State-by-state data is available from the Department of Justice.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines murder as "the crime of unlawfully and unjustifiably killing a person" (2023). While manslaughter is similar, it refers to the unlawful killing of one person by another without intention or advance planning. Negligence entails failing to use a proper level of care, resulting in death, which does not fall under the governmental definition of violent crime. In summary, governmental data on murder does not include deaths caused by negligence, suicide, accidents, justifiable homicide (such as a police officer killing a felon in the line of duty or a private citizen killing someone committing a felony) or attempts to commit murder (United States Department of Justice, 2007d). Rape is defined as non-consensual sexual penetration, and robbery is the illegal taking of money or property belonging to another. These offenses require the presence of violence or the threat of violence to meet the criteria of the crime's definition. Similarly, while simple assault involves a physical attack or threat of attack, it does not involve a dangerous weapon or serious injury. Aggravated assault involves a higher level of violence that could cause death or serious bodily harm, making it a violent crime.

The U.S. Department of Justice estimated that in 2021, 4,598,310 violent crimes occurred in the United States, or 16.5 violent crimes per 1,000 inhabitants. The national violent crime rate from 1993 to 2021 declined from 79.8 to 16.5 victimizations per 1,000 individuals over the age of twelve. However, only an estimated 46 percent of violent crimes occurring in urban areas were reported to authorities in 2021, with aggravated assault and rape more likely to be reported. Of those cases that were reported, police cleared just under half, with murders and manslaughters being solved most often (U.S. Department of Justice, 2022). The Federal Bureau of Investigation transitioned to using the National Incident-Based Reporting System in 2021 to collect more data and further refine the data (Gramlich, 2020).

Prevalence. According to the 2022 U.S. Department of Justice data, the occurrence of aggravated assault decreased by 20 percent between 2017 and 2021, to 16.5 per 1,000 individuals. This encouraging, downward trend was also present in robberies, aggravated assaults, and simple assaults.

Robbery accounted for around 17 percent of all violent crimes in 2021, or 464,280 offenses. The most common locations for acts of robbery were streets and highways, while the fewest offenses occurred in banks. On average, the stolen property value per crime was $1,797, while bank robberies averaged $4,213 per offense. Total loss estimates for the year 2019 were $482 million.

Instances of rape totaled 324,500 in 2021, or 1.2 offenses per 1,000 individuals. Included in these figures are each reported victim of a rape, attempted rape, or assault with intent to rape. Statutory rape, defined as sex with a minor, is not included in the data unless force was used in the commission of the crime; neither is incest. The historical definition used by the Department of Justice concerning rape used the words "female" and "forcible" until the 2013 revision, at which time the definition was amended to "penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim" (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2019).

Although a detailed analysis of the causes of sexual offending is beyond the scope of this article, criminologists Tony Ward and Anthony Beech (2008) provide a useful integrated theory that includes genetic predisposition; adverse developmental experiences (such as child abuse and rejection); psychological dispositions/trait factors (interpersonal problems, mental disorders); social and cultural structures and process (sexism, masculinity, and other learned behaviors); and contextual factors (such as stress or intoxication). While their theoretical framework is related to sexual offending exclusively, it is useful in considering the development of theories of violent crime in general.

Finally, an estimated 16,425 people were murdered in the United States in 2019. Murder was the least common violent crime, making up only 1.4 percent of the overall violent crime, or 5.0 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Of murder offenders, 10,306 were male, 1,408 were female, and in 4,502 cases, the offender's sex was not known. About two-thirds of the offenders were individuals eighteen years of age or older. Some 54.7 percent of all murder victims were identified as Black, and 42.3 percent were identified as White. Nearly forty-fifths of murder victims were male (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2019). The following year, murder rates soared in the U.S., increasing by 29.4 percent (Dilanian, 2022).

Viewpoints

How Does Violent Crime Occur? In this book on homicide in Australia, When Men Kill, Kenneth Polk (1994) offers an excellent summary of crime statistics from the United States, along with contemporary theoretical analysis. In his summary of studies by Wolfgang (1958), Wallace (1986), and Daly and Wilson (1988), for example, a picture emerges of a male offender, over the age of twenty-five, who is from a poor economic background and who has a higher than 50 percent chance of being unemployed. Subsequent research has investigated the impact of hormonal levels, attitudinal differences, and cognitive and emotional abilities, among other potential factors, in violent offenders.

Sexual Intimacy. Violence often arises out of sexual intimacy, and in Polk's study, about 23 percent of the murders committed in Victoria, Australia, between 1985 and 1989 involved "sexual ownership" and control issues. The first type of sexual ownership and control was violence triggered by jealousy or the threat of separation from a sexual partner. Four percent of these murders were of perceived rivals, while the majority involved the murder of a current or former sexual partner. In both of these instances, numerous acts of physical assault and threats usually preceded the actual murder, and the use of temporary restraining orders and police interventions was ineffective (Polk, 1994). The second type of sexual partner murders involved suicidal thinking and depression on the part of the offender, whose issues of ownership of and control over his or her sexual partner led to the assumption that the partner would be better off dead too. Often, these murderers were older and in failing health, but younger killers facing medical and/or economic problems resorted to this murder-suicide pattern as well. Most of the killings related to sexual partner control involved premeditated planning on the part of the murderer, even those that seemed to be based on violent, immediate expressions of anger.

Confrontations. Most homicides are "confrontational" in nature, involving strangers, acquaintances, family members, or friends (Polk, 1994). Often these interpersonal disputes are spontaneous arguments sparked by some perceived threat to the "honor" of one or both participants. Alcohol or drug impairment plays a significant role in these dynamics. Many murders occur outside of bars and clubs, and often gang violence is a factor. In analyzing these confrontation murders, Luckenbill (1977) set forth a multistep transactional analysis of the actions of both the offender and the victim that lead to the death.

The first step involves an opening move by the victim that is perceived by the offender to be some act of dishonor. Intentional and unintentional acts, gestures, facial expressions, or comments by the victim can set off the offender regardless of how trivial or meaningless.
In the second step, the offender takes the victim's behavior as meaning offense.
The offender making some retaliatory move against the victim rather than ignoring the situation is step three.
In step four, though the victim may have numerous options, he or she chooses to stand up to the offender's challenge, leading to the killing of the victim. Usually, these murders are resolved in three ways: the killer flees, remains to face the police, or is held by observers until the police arrive (Polk, 1994).

Sociologist Randall Collins also argues that traditional views of crime are not helpful in understanding violent situations (2008). Rather than focusing on the pathology of the individuals involved, he also engages in a transactional analysis of violent situations. Violence, according to Collins's analysis, "is a set of pathways around confrontational tension and fear" (2008, p. 8). In contrast to traditional criminological theory, however, Collins argues that violence is not easy even if the motivation exists because so many conditions are required for violence, and there are numerous turning points that could diffuse the event. Social control and routine activities theorists, for example, say that "the formula for crime is a coincidence in time and space of a motivated offender, an accessible victim, and the absence of social control agents who deter crime" (Collins, 2008, p. 21).

Others might argue that violence stems from poverty and low status in a capitalist economy. Social learning theorists argue that the techniques of violence are learned and acquired through "deliberate tutelage, training, and socialization of offenders" (Akers & Silverman, 2004, p. 19). Collins, however, argues that "most violence is bluster and standoff, with little actually happening, or incompetent performance with mostly ancillary and unintended damage" (2008, p. 32). Like David F. Luckenbill, Collins takes a micro-sociological view of violence by analyzing each step an actor might take that either diffuses violence or causes it to escalate. Unlike Luckenbill, though, Collins believes that each comment or action by the parties is important in the analysis, not just the process that steps up the violence. The significance of acts such as griping, whining, arguing, and quarreling all receive extensive regard under Collins's theoretical framework.

Unplanned Violence. The third category of homicides involves what Polk refers to as "exceptional rush" killings that occur during some other high-risk criminal activity, such as an armed robbery. In these situations, the victim is most likely a stranger to the murderer. Smaller categories of homicides include victims killing their attackers, professionals killing for hire, prison murders, serial killings, mass murders, and law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

Family Violence. In most situations in which children are the victims of a murder, they fall into a category labeled "family killings" (Polk, 2004, p. 141). In these instances, female perpetrators are as frequent as male killers. According to Polk, there are four sub-themes in parental murders of their children.

The first type involves parents who batter or beat their children; the murder occurs as an outgrowth of this conduct.
The second type mirrors the murder of a sexual partner as noted above; the murderer is suicidal and believes that the children need to die along with him or her.
The third subcategory of parental murder involves neonaticide, or the killing of an infant during the first twenty-four hours of its life. Mothers are the most typical killers in these instances.
The final subcategory involves neglect of a child leading to his or her death (Polk, 2004).

Organized Crime. Thus far, the discussion of violent crime in the United States has focused on individual perpetrators. Violent crime also occurs during organized crime, including gang violence. The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology defines organized crime as having several essential elements. First, some formal organizational structure must exist, including a hierarchical governance process and a division of duties or labor. The organization also must have management systems in place, including rules of conduct and record keeping (Blackwell, 2000, p. 216). It would seem that an additional element necessary would be a purpose or focus for the organization. These characteristics fit both traditional organized crime, such as the Mafia and youth gangs.

The Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 defines organized crime as "The unlawful activities of … a highly organized and disciplined association" (U.S., 1970). It can and does exist in any setting, local, state, national, or international. It also can flourish within prisons. To thrive, however, organized crime must have strong ties with legitimate business entities so that money can be moved throughout the economy. Cooperation from respected members of the business community is sometimes gained through bribery, extortion, and blackmail. Criminal endeavors are additionally protected by bribing judicial and law enforcement officials. To achieve its goals and to protect its interests, organized crime may resort to violence.

To combat organized crime, in 1970, the federal government passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act (18 U. S. C. A., § 1961 et seq.) In addition to crimes deemed to be white-collar in nature, RICO addresses gambling, extortion, prostitution, narcotics trafficking, loan sharking, and murder. Punishment under RICO can be extremely harsh and include fines and up to twenty years in prison. Additionally, the defendant must forfeit any claims to the money or property obtained from the criminal enterprise or obtained from any criminal enterprise barred under RICO (White-Collar Crime, 2008). By the 2020s, the Global Organized Crime Network reported that, though COVID-19 was thought to stall organized crime activities in 2020, there was no statistically significant, long-term change. Organized crime organizations were noted to often work alongside gangs in the U.S., and the rise in gun violence was on the rise in the early 2020s, as distrust of the police increased (The Organized Crime Index, n.d.).

Gang Violence. Although any in-depth discussion of gang violence falls outside the scope of this article, some degree of violence in the United States is caused by gangs. According to 2023 estimates from the National Gang Center, the latest available data indicated over 33,000 gangs—including street gangs, prison gangs, and outlaw motorcycle gangs—were active in the U.S. Street gangs are often made up of youth and urban criminal organizations. Outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) are made up of individuals who conduct illegal activities using motorcycle clubs. According to the Justice Department, by 2021, more than three hundred OMGs operated in the United States. Prison gangs operate mainly within the penal system and prison institutions but often have links to street gangs, drug cartels, and OMGs outside. Transnational criminal organizations operate large-scale criminal networks across international borders and frequently ally with street and prison gangs; for instance, tens of thousands of people living in more than a handful of countries belonged to MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) by the mid-2010s (Weiser, 2021). According to the National Gang Center, studies have found street gangs can be responsible for as much as 65 to 85 percent of the violent crime in the areas where they operate, though they made up only 15 to 20 percent of the sample used in the study (National Gang Center, n.d.). Some of the violent crime perpetrated by gangs includes murder, home invasions, armed robbery, aggravated assault, carjackings, and drive-by shootings. They are also often involved in intimidation and extortion, prostitution, and other forms of human trafficking.

In his studies of youth gangs in Chicago, Illinois, John Hagedon, argued that instead of relying on traditional sociological theories of crime, scholars should be engaged in cultural studies of the gang populations (2008). Hagedon believes that "if gangs are indeed made up of alienated youth who are angry with an unresponsive government, undying racism, and a blank future," then focusing on geographic zones of social disorganization or attributing rational choice analysis to these situations not only fails to provide a meaningful explanation of gang violence, it also affects the interventions posed to help alleviate crime in the United States (2008, p. 135).

While some gang violence is related to drug trafficking, the "vast majority of violent incidences involving gang members continue to result from fights over turf, status, and revenge" (Gang Violence, 2002, para. 1). Successful methods of intervention are necessary. The State of California's SafeState: Preventing Crime in California task force, for example, called gang violence, "one of the greatest threats to the safety and security of all Americans" (2008, para. 2). Although gang violence is a law enforcement problem, it also is a community problem that requires the involvement of educators, healthcare professionals, business leaders, politicians, and other community-based organizations.

Terms & Concepts

Aggravated assault: An attack on an individual that usually involves a weapon and is likely to produce death or serious bodily harm.

Bribery: Offering someone money to act in an illegal manner.

Carjacking: Taking control of someone's car while the owner is present, either to steal the automobile, rob the owner, or force the driver to go someplace against their will.

Disposition: An inclination or tendency to act in a certain manner.

Negligence: Causing harm or the failure of an actor to use reasonable care when a duty is owed to another.

Neonaticide: The killing of an infant within the first twenty-four hours of their life.

Rationalizations: Explanations provided for behavior that is illegal or inappropriate.

Turf: A geographical area claimed by a gang as under their ownership and control.

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