Types of Crime - Aggravated Assault

The FBI defines aggravated assault as "an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This type of assault is usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm." In 2002 894,348 offenses of aggravated assault were reported to law enforcement agencies nationwide. The aggravated assault rate of 310.1 per 100,000 inhabitants declined by 2.7 percent from 2001. By comparison, the rate of aggravated assault has declined by 14.2 percent since 1998, and by 29.6 percent since 1993. (See Table 2.1.)

In 2002 metropolitan areas reported a rate of aggravated assault of 332.3 per 100,000 people, compared to 300.1 per 100,000 in cities outside metropolitan areas,

TABLE 2.8
Sniper-attack murder incidents, victims, and offenders, 1982–2001

Year	Number of incidents	Number of victims	Offenders*
Total	327	379	224
1982	12	15	8
1983	17	17	8
1984	18	37	16
1985	10	10	5
1986	9	9	4
1987	28	36	17
1988	47	55	32
1989	46	49	28
1990	40	41	24
1991	10	12	5
1992	31	33	14
1993	6	6	3
1994	2	2	5
1995	11	12	6
1996	8	8	13
1997	4	4	1
1998	10	15	15
1999	5	5	4
2000	8	8	5
2001	5	5	11
*This represents the number of instances in which the age, sex, and/or race of the offender was reported by law enforcement.
SOURCE: "Table 5.13: Sniper-Attack Murder Incidents, Victims and Offenders, 1982–2002," in Crime in the United States 2002, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington, DC, 2003

and 168.5 per 100,000 in rural counties. (See Table 1.2 in Chapter 1.) Aggravated assault was more likely to occur in the South (43.1 percent of the cases) followed by the West (23.7 percent), the Midwest (18.7 percent), and the Northeast (14.6 percent). The highest rate of aggravated assault was in July while the lowest rates were in November through February.

Weapons Used

About one-third (35.4 percent) of all aggravated assaults in 2002 were committed with weapons such as clubs or other blunt objects. Personal weapons—hands, fists, and feet—were used in 27.7 percent of the offenses, firearms in 19.0 percent, and knives or cutting instruments in 17.8 percent. By region, 21 percent of assaults were committed with firearms in Southern states, 18.0 percent in both the Midwestern and Western states, and 14.1 percent in Northeastern states. (See Table 2.13.)

Arrests

Law enforcement agencies cleared an average of 56.5 percent of the reported cases of aggravated assault in 2002. Three of every four violent crime arrests (75.8 percent) were for aggravated assault. Table 1.5 in Chapter 1 shows that offenders under the age of 18 made up 12.7 percent of all those arrested for aggravated assault. Males (79.8 percent of all offenders) were far more likely to be arrested

TABLE 2.9
Sniper-attack murder offenders, by age, sex, and race, 1982–2001

	Sex			Race
Age	Total	Male	Female	Unknown	White	Black	American Indian/Alaskan Native	Asian/Pacific Islander	Unknown
Total	224	217	7	0	117	94	2	2	9
Under 10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10 to 12	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
13	5	4	1	0	5	0	0	0	0
14	2	2	0	0	1	1	0	0	0
15	8	7	1	0	5	1	0	0	2
16	6	6	0	0	3	3	0	0	0
17	7	7	0	0	2	5	0	0	0
18	15	15	0	0	7	5	1	0	2
19	20	19	1	0	7	12	0	0	1
20	17	17	0	0	5	10	0	2	0
21	9	9	0	0	1	7	0	0	1
22	15	14	1	0	5	9	1	0	0
23	6	6	0	0	5	1	0	0	0
24	12	12	0	0	8	4	0	0	0
25 to 29	36	35	1	0	19	17	0	0	0
30 to 34	17	16	1	0	13	4	0	0	0
35 to 39	11	11	0	0	7	4	0	0	0
40 to 44	6	6	0	0	6	0	0	0	0
45 to 49	6	6	0	0	5	1	0	0	0
50 to 54	5	5	0	0	3	2	0	0	0
55 to 59	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
60 to 64	2	2	0	0	1	1	0	0	0
65 and over	3	3	0	0	2	1	0	0	0
Unknown	14	13	1	0	5	6	0	0	3
SOURCE: "Table 5.19: Sniper-Attack Murder Offenders, by Age, Sex, and Race, 1982–2001," in Crime in the United States 2002, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington, DC, 2003

than females. Among those arrested for aggravated assault, 63.4 percent were white and 34.2 percent were black.