Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January–June, 2018

Preliminary figures indicate that law enforcement agencies throughout the nation showed an overall decrease of 4.3 percent in the number of violent crimes brought to their attention for the first 6 months of 2018 when compared with figures reported for the same time in 2017. The violent crime category includes murder, rape (revised definition), robbery, and aggravated assault. The number of property crimes in the United States from January to June of 2018 dropped 7.2 percent when compared with data for the same time period in 2017. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Arson is also a property crime, but data for arson are not included in property crime totals due to fluctuations in reporting. Figures for the first six months of 2018 indicate that arson decreased 9.4 percent when compared with 2017 figures for the same time period.

The data presented in Tables 1 and 2 indicate the percent change in offenses known to law enforcement for the first 6 months of 2018 compared with those for the first half of 2017 by population group and region, respectively. Table 3 reflects the percent change in offenses reported within the nation for consecutive years (each year compared with the prior year). Table 4 presents the number of offenses known to law enforcement for agencies with resident populations of 100,000 or more that provided 6 months of complete data for 2018. In addition, Table 4 presents 6 months of 2017 data, where available, as a point of comparison. All data in this Report are preliminary.