Early last week CNN had a story about a reference book - the new edition of City Crime Rankings. It is rare that a reference book gets headlines.
We don't buy City Crime Rankings because it is essentially a recompilation of the data from the Uniform Crime Reports which we do have. It does the 6th grade math for you. Here is how you can do it for yourself. To obtain a rate, divide the number for the crime of your choice by the population figure. Then multiply by an appropriate number to get the "rate per xx inhabitants" you want.
Example: 2004 Takoma Park Auto Theft (154/17875) x 1000 to get a rate of 8.615 per 1000 inhabitants. What does this mean? Look at the rates in other cities or at other times (see below). Of course this is easier to do using copy and paste from the online edition. But we do have the paper copy if you prefer it.
For crime statistics see:
R 364.1 UNITED Uniform crime reports for the United States. (Crime in the United States)
It sits next to
R 364.1 SOURCEB Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics.
Please note: The tallies will be close to those published by individual cities but not exactly the same, as some crimes are subsequently reclassified, the FBI no doubt makes an occasional typo, etc.
(Edited March 26 2006 to note: the TP Police Department is again publishing the local crime tallies on the web)
Here are some examples of tables constructed using that method (Just to encourage you. No guarantees as we are librarians not statisticians. Go look up the data and make your own constructs.)
Comparing the DOJ published Uniform Crime Reports for Takoma Park, Greenbelt and Westminster and dividing by the population estimates.
2004 crimes/1000 persons
Takoma Park: 43.972
Greenbelt: 67.869
Westminster: 44.196
All three have local police departments
Census Bureau US 2000 numbers (not the same as the FBI estimates)
Takoma Park: 17,299 | per capita income $26,437 | individuals below poverty level 10.3%
Greenbelt: 21,456 | per capita income $25,236 | individuals below poverty level 10.2%
Westminster: 16,731 | per capita income $20,320 | individuals below poverty level 9.6%
An aside: Have you looked at the SocioEcon mapper. We have no print equivalent.
Here are our pictures (approach them with scepticism - please make your own) followed by the source data from which we constructed them.
2000 | Takoma Park | Greenbelt | Westminster | |||
pop | 19471 | per 1000 | 22689 | per 1000 | 16189 | per 1000 |
homicide | 1 | 0.051 | 3 | 0.132 | 1 | 0.062 |
rape | 5 | 0.257 | 10 | 0.441 | 1 | 0.062 |
robbery | 97 | 4.982 | 83 | 3.658 | 21 | 1.297 |
assault | 27 | 1.387 | 72 | 3.173 | 58 | 3.583 |
violent | 130 | 6.677 | 168 | 7.404 | 81 | 5.003 |
burglary | 137 | 7.036 | 152 | 6.699 | 133 | 8.215 |
larceny | 494 | 25.371 | 864 | 38.080 | 731 | 45.154 |
auto theft | 166 | 8.525 | 278 | 12.253 | 42 | 2.594 |
arson | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 9 | 0.556 |
property | 797 | 40.933 | 1294 | 38.08 | 915 | 56.520 |
total | 927 | 47.609 | 1462 | 64.437 | 987 | 60.967 |
2001 | Takoma Park | Greenbelt | Westminster | |||
pop | 17556 | per 1000 | 21775 | per 1000 | 16980 | per 1000 |
homicide | 1 | 0.057 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 |
rape | 4 | 0.228 | 9 | 0.413 | 2 | 0.118 |
robbery | 70 | 3.987 | 76 | 3.490 | 16 | 0.942 |
assault | 28 | 1.595 | 74 | 3.398 | 42 | 2.473 |
violent | 103 | 5.867 | 159 | 7.302 | 60 | 3.534 |
burglary | 150 | 8.544 | 178 | 8.175 | 122 | 7.185 |
larceny | 562 | 32.012 | 944 | 43.352 | 598 | 35.218 |
auto theft | 198 | 11.278 | 422 | 19.380 | 29 | 1.708 |
arson | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 14 | 0.824 |
property | 910 | 51.834 | 1544 | 70.907 | 763 | 44.935 |
total | 1013 | 57.701 | 1703 | 78.209 | 809 | 47.644 |
2002 | Takoma Park | Greenbelt | Westminster | |||
pop | 17827 | per 1000 | 22111 | per 1000 | 17242 | per 1000 |
homicide | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 0.045 | 1 | 0.058 |
rape | 6 | 0.337 | 14 | 0.633 | 3 | 0.174 |
robbery | 2 | 5.161 | 106 | 4.794 | 19 | 1.102 |
assault | 26 | 1.458 | 71 | 3.211 | 91 | 5.278 |
violent | 124 | 6.956 | 192 | 8.683 | 114 | 6.612 |
burglary | 107 | 6.002 | 160 | 0.045 | 119 | 6.902 |
larceny | 639 | 35.845 | 957 | 43.282 | 620 | 35.959 |
auto theft | 229 | 12.846 | 418 | 18.905 | 30 | 1.740 |
arson | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 6 | 0.348 |
property | 975 | 54.692 | 1535 | 69.422 | 775 | 44.948 |
total | 1099 | 61.648 | 1727 | 78.106 | 883 | 51.212 |
2003 | Takoma Park | Greenbelt | Westminster | |||
pop | 17852 | per 1000 | 22211 | per 1000 | 17287 | per 1000 |
homicide | 2 | 0.112 | 3 | 0.135 | 1 | 0.058 |
rape | 9 | 0.504 | 11 | 0.495 | 4 | 0.231 |
robbery | 67 | 3.753 | 79 | 3.557 | 17 | 0.983 |
assault | 28 | 1.568 | 46 | 2.071 | 109 | 6.305 |
violent | 106 | 5.938 | 139 | 6.258 | 131 | 7.578 |
burglary | 156 | 8.739 | 142 | 6.393 | 107 | 6.190 |
larceny | 447 | 25.039 | 952 | 42.862 | 615 | 35.576 |
auto theft | 176 | 9.859 | 399 | 17.964 | 41 | 2.372 |
arson | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 12 | 0.694 |
property | 779 | 43.637 | 1493 | 67.219 | 763 | 44.137 |
total | 885 | 49.574 | 1632 | 73.477 | 894 | 51.715 |
2004 | Takoma Park | Greenbelt | Westminster | |||
pop | 17875 | per 1000 | 22293 | per 1000 | 17558 | per 1000 |
homicide | 0 | 0.000 | 3 | 0.135 | 0 | 0.000 |
rape | 2 | 0.112 | 9 | 0.404 | 0 | 0.000 |
robbery | 58 | 3.245 | 105 | 4.710 | 12 | 0.683 |
assault | 29 | 1.622 | 54 | 2.422 | 66 | 3.759 |
violent | 89 | 4.979 | 171 | 7.671 | 78 | 4.442 |
burglary | 133 | 7.441 | 151 | 6.773 | 75 | 4.272 |
larceny | 410 | 22.937 | 799 | 35.841 | 592 | 33.717 |
auto theft | 154 | 8.615 | 392 | 17.584 | 31 | 1.766 |
arson | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.000 | 9 | 0.513 |
property | 697 | 38.993 | 1342 | 60.198 | 698 | 39.754 |
total | 786 | 43.972 | 1513 | 67.869 | 776 | 44.196 |
5 yrs | Takoma Park | Greenbelt | Westminster | |||
pop avg | 18.12 | 22.22 | 17.05 | |||
homicide | 4 | 0.04 | 10 | 0.09 | 3 | 0.04 |
rape | 26 | 0.29 | 53 | 0.48 | 10 | 0.12 |
robbery | 384 | 4.24 | 449 | 4.04 | 85 | 1.00 |
assault | 138 | 1.52 | 317 | 2.85 | 366 | 4.29 |
violent | 552 | 6.09 | 829 | 7.46 | 464 | 5.44 |
burglary | 683 | 7.54 | 783 | 7.05 | 556 | 6.52 |
larceny | 2552 | 28.17 | 4516 | 40.65 | 3156 | 37.02 |
auto theft | 923 | 10.19 | 1909 | 17.18 | 173 | 2.03 |
arson | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 50 | 0.59 |
property | 4158 | 45.89 | 7208 | 64.88 | 3914 | 45.91 |
total | 4710 | 51.99 | 8037 | 72.34 | 4349 | 51.01 |
Note: The population estimate for Takoma Park for 2000 seems oddly inflated, but that is the number used by the FBI.
Posted by library at November 25, 2005 08:29 PM