Arrest Statistics
The FBI collects data on arrests and publishes the numbers in its Crime in the United States series. During the period 1990–2001, total estimated arrests first rose from 14.2 million in 1990 to 15.3 million in 1997, the peak year in this timeframe. Thereafter, arrests declined every year to reach 13.7 million in 2003. For the period as a whole, arrests decreased at the rate of 0.3% a year—versus a growth in jail population of 4% a year in the same period. The overall arrest rate, therefore, does not explain the increase in jail population. Individuals are jailed for periods of less than a year, and therefore a peak in arrests in 1997 does not influence the jail population in 2003.
Table 3.3 shows arrests by categories for 2003. The largest single category is "drug abuse violations." The even larger classification, "all other offenses" is an aggregation of offenses against specific state and local statutes that are not used elsewhere in the tabulation. Arrests for drug abuse violations were up by 22.4% in the ten-year period from 1994 to 2003. Other categories showed a decline during this period. Murders were down 36.2%, robbery 25%, and forcible rape 22.3%. More rigorous prosecution of drug violations may, in part, explain why the rate of growth in jail populations is higher than the growth rate of total arrests.
Sentencing Status and Procedural Delays
According to Doris J. James in Profile of Jail Inmates, 2002 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, July 2004), 28.2% of jail inmates in 2002 were detained awaiting arraignment or trial, and about 15% were held on a prior sentence but also awaiting arraignment or trial on a new charge. These percentages are in line with data shown in the Bureau's publication Felony Sentences in State
TABLE 3.3
Estimated number of arrests, 2003
| Totala | 13,639,479 |
| Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter | 13,190 |
| Forcible rape | 26,350 |
| Robbery | 107,553 |
| Aggravated assault | 449,933 |
| Burglary | 290,956 |
| Larceny-theft | 1,145,074 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 152,934 |
| Arson | 16,163 |
| Violent crimeb | 597,026 |
| Property crimeb | 1,605,127 |
| Other assaults | 1,246,698 |
| Forgery and counterfeiting | 111,823 |
| Fraud | 299,138 |
| Embezzlement | 16,826 |
| Stolen property; buying, receiving, possessing | 126,775 |
| Vandalism | 273,431 |
| Weapons; carrying, possessing, etc. | 167,972 |
| Prostitution and commercialized vice | 75,190 |
| Sex offenses (except forcible rape and prostitution) | 91,546 |
| Drug abuse violations | 1,678,192 |
| Gambling | 10,954 |
| Offenses against the family and children | 136,034 |
| Driving under the influence | 1,448,148 |
| Liquor laws | 612,079 |
| Drunkenness | 548,616 |
| Disorderly conduct | 639,371 |
| Vagrancy | 28,948 |
| All other offenses | 3,665,543 |
| Suspicion | 7,163 |
| Curfew and loitering law violations | 136,461 |
| Runaways | 123,581 |
| aDoes not include suspicion. | |
| bViolent crimes are offenses of murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Property crimes are offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. | |
Courts, 2002 (Matthew R. Durose and Patrick A. Langan, Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2004). In the period between 1992 and 2002, the median number of days required to dispose of all cases increased from 138 days to 184 days. In 2002 the median time between arrest and sentencing for violent offenses was 218 days; for property offenses, 172 days; and for drug offenses, 175 days. Of all persons convicted of a felony in state courts, 78% were sentenced within one year following arrest.
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