GAO-01-1051R Criminal Justice Statistics for Major Cities

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, DC 20548

August 17, 2001

The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton

Ranking Minority Member

Subcommittee on the District of Columbia

Committee on Government Reform

House of Representatives

Subject: Criminal Justice Statistics for Washington, D.C., and Other Major Cities

Dear Ms. Norton:

On July 20, 2001, we testified at an oversight hearing—which focused on prisoner

releases and reintegration programs—held by the Subcommittee on the District of

Columbia, House Committee on Government Reform.1

 Among other matters, we

testified that the District, a wholly urban jurisdiction, was perhaps facing greater

challenges than most jurisdictions. We noted, for instance, that Bureau of Justice

Statistics (BJS) data as of December 31, 1999, indicated that the District of

Columbia’s incarceration rate was higher than the rate for either Louisiana or Texas,

the jurisdictions with the next highest rates. Also, we noted that a National Institute

of Justice (NIJ) report on arrests in urban areas indicated that a high percentage of

adult males arrested in the District in 1999 tested positive for at least one type of

drug.

Regarding incarceration rates, you commented that it was inappropriate to compare

the District with states. You requested that we provide you, within 30 days, statistics

comparing Washington, D.C., with other major cities. More specifically, you asked us

to compare cities based on incarceration rates and any other relevant category of

criminal justice statistics that we presented in our July 20th testimony.

To respond to your request, we contacted researchers in academia and at BJS and

NIJ to discuss incarceration rates, and we further analyzed NIJ’s report on arrestee

drug testing. According to the researchers we contacted, incarceration rates are

mainly applicable for comparing states and are not available for comparing cities.

Rather, the researchers noted that Crime Index2

 data compiled by the Federal Bureau

 1

Prisoner Releases: Reintegration of Offenders Into Communities (GAO-01-966T, July 20, 2001). 2

The Crime Index is composed of selected offenses used to gauge fluctuations in the overall volume

and rate of crime reported to law enforcement. The offenses included in the Index are (1) the violent
2 GAO-01-1051R Criminal Justice Statistics for Major Cities

of Investigation (FBI) in its Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program3 generally are

the most useful criminal justice statistics for comparing major cities, particularly in

reference to public safety issues. Thus, we are presenting Crime Index data in this

letter. Also, regarding drug testing of arrestees, we are presenting data for all of the

applicable urban sites covered in NIJ’s report.

In summary, the following two sections of this report present city-to-city

comparisons based on (1) Crime Index data and (2) arrestee drug testing data,

respectively.

Crime Index Data by Major City for 1999

Washington, D.C., is one of the nation’s major cities, that is, cities with a population

of 450,000 or more. For these large cities, we obtained Crime Index data for calendar

year 1999, the most recent year for which substantially complete UCR Program

information was available. As enclosure I shows, the 1999 Crime Index total rates for

these large cities ranged from a high of 10,416 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants in

Detroit, Michigan, to a low of 2,944 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants in San Jose,

California. For Washington, D.C., the 1999 Crime Index total rate was 8,062 offenses

per 100,000 inhabitants.

Arrestee Drug Testing Data by Major City for 1999

In our July 2001 testimony, we said that, according to a recent NIJ report, 69 percent

of adult males arrested in the District of Columbia in calendar year 1999 tested

positive for at least one type of drug.4

 Also, we said that this figure was 5 percentage

points higher than the median rate (64 percent) of use of any drug among the adult

males arrested that year in the 34 urban sites covered by NIJ’s report.

To provide a basis for specific comparisons, enclosure II presents data for each of the

34 urban sites. As shown in the enclosure, in 1999, the percentages of arrested adult

males who tested positive for at least one type of drug ranged from a high of 76.7

percent in Atlanta, Georgia, to a low of 49.5 percent in San Antonio, Texas.

-- -- -- -- --

 crimes of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault and

(2) the property crimes of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.

3

The UCR Program is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of over 17,000 city, county, and state

law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention. According to

the FBI, during 1999, law enforcement agencies active in the UCR Program represented nearly 260

million U.S. inhabitants, or 95 percent of the total population as established by the Bureau of the

Census.

4

Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program: 1999 Annual Report on Adult and Juvenile

Arrestees (NCJ 181426, June 2000). ADAM is an NIJ research program that provides planning and

policy information on drug use and other characteristics of arrestees in U.S. cities through quarterly

interviews of adult and juvenile arrestees in holding facilities. The 1999 program collected data from

adult male arrestees in 34 reporting sites. ADAM data consist of arrestees’ self-reports regarding their

drug use and urinalysis results.
GAO-01-1051R Criminal Justice Statistics for Major Cities 3

As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce its contents earlier, we plan

no further distribution of this letter until 30 days after its date. At that time, will

make copies available to others on request.

If you have any questions about our work, please call me at (202) 512-8777 or

Assistant Director, Danny R. Burton, at (214) 777-5600. Other key contributors to this 

letter were Michael H. Harmond and Ellen T. Wolfe.

Sincerely yours,

Laurie E. Ekstrand

Director, Justice Issues

Enclosures - 2
4 GAO-01-1051R Criminal Justice Statistics for Major Cities

Enclosure I

Crime Index Data for Major U.S. Cities, Calendar Year 1999

Rates (number of offenses per 100,000 inhabitants)a

CitybCrime Index total Violent crime totalcProperty crime totaldPopulatione

Detroit, MI 10,416 2,254 8,162 975,020

Dallas, TX 9,616 1,414 8,201 1,091,386

Oklahoma City, OK 9,319 859 8,460 473,772

Seattle, WA 9,165 767 8,397 542,954

Columbus, OH 9,102 855 8,247 673,401

Tucson, AZ 8,992 914 8,079 471,286

Nashville, TN 8,884 1,607 7,276 522,935

Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC 8,830 1,345 7,484 604,931

Memphis, TN 8,368 1,411 6,958 609,851

Portland, OR 8,134 1,237 6,897 508,984

Washington, D.C. 8,062 1,628 6,434 519,000

Chicago, IL 8,060f1,911f6,149 2,821,032

Milwaukee, WI 7,929 1,043 6,886 580,899

Phoenix, AZ 7,720 832 6,888 1,225,881

New Orleans, LA 7,677 1,273 6,404 465,828

Fort Worth, TX 7,488 851 6,636 498,883

Philadelphia, PA 7,291 1,605 5,687 1,435,382

Houston, TX 7,271 1,187 6,084 1,812,277

Jacksonville, FL 7,152 1,034 6,117 702,462

Austin, TX 7,145 529 6,616 560,389

San Antonio, TX 6,793 561 6,232 1,130,173

Cleveland, OH 6,743 1,215 5,528 497,903

Boston, MA 6,288 1,302 4,986 557,812

El Paso, TX 5,792 686 5,106 623,888

San Francisco, CA 5,725 866 4,859 756,700

Indianapolis, IN 5,322 1,016 4,306 759,066

Denver, CO 5,256 571 4,685 509,624

Las Vegas, NV 5,185 665 4,520 922,450

Honolulu, HI 4,925 254 4,671 866,566

Los Angeles, CA 4,589 1,283 3,305 3,650,138

New York, NY 4,032 1,063 2,969 7,429,263

San Diego, CA 4,004 598 3,405 1,238,549

San Jose, CA 2,944 581 2,363 875,840

Note: The “Crime Factors” section (pp.iv-v) of the cited source cautions readers that the ranking of cities based on Crime Index

figures can lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses. The section notes, for instance, that the volume and type of crime

occurring from place to place are affected by numerous factors, including economic conditions, specific to each jurisdiction.

a

We calculated Crime Index rates for each central city by dividing the number of crimes by the population number and then

multiplying by 100,000. For instance, the number of crimes reported in 1999 for Detroit was 101, 561. We divided 101,561 by

975,020 and multiplied the resulting quotient by 100,000 to arrive at a Crime Index total rate for Detroit of 10,416 offenses per

100,000 inhabitants.

b

The cities listed are those with a population of 450,000 or more (see note e) and for which UCR Program data were available

for 1999. According to the FBI, due to data problems, Baltimore, MD (population of 632,681), was not included in the FBI report

cited in the source statement below.

c

Violent crimes include murder and nonnegligent homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. d

Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. According to the FBI, sufficient data were not available

to estimate totals for arson.

e

Population data are Bureau of the Census provisional estimates as of July 1, 1999, and are subject to change. With the

exceptions of Las Vegas and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the estimates are for the central city and do not include the entire

metropolitan statistical areas. Las Vegas and Charlotte-Mecklenburg include data reported to the FBI from police jurisdictions

expanding beyond the central city.

f

According to the FBI, instances of forcible rape are not included in the Crime Index total and the violent crime total rates for

Chicago because rape figures furnished by the Illinois Department of State Police were not in accordance with national UCR

Program guidelines.

Source: GAO calculations based on UCR Program data reported by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI in Crime in

the United States 1999, tables 6 and 8.
GAO-01-1051R Criminal Justice Statistics for Major Cities 5

Enclosure II

Percentage of Arrested Adult Males (by ADAM Program City)

Who Tested Positive for Drug Use, Calendar Year 1999

ADAM Program city Percent of arrested adult males who tested positive

for at least one type of drug

Atlanta, GA 76.7

New York, NY 74.7

Chicago, IL 74.4

Cleveland, OH 71.0

Philadelphia, PA 69.8

New Orleans, LA 69.2

Washington, D.C. 68.9

Sacramento, CA 68.3

Tucson, AZ 68.0

Denver, CO 66.8

Miami, FL 66.0

Seattle, WA 65.9

Detroit, MI 65.3

Phoenix, AZ 64.4

Oklahoma City, OK 64.2

Indianapolis, IN 64.1

Albuquerque, NM 63.9

Birmingham, AL 63.8

Fort Lauderdale, FL 63.8

Portland, OR 63.8

San Diego, CA 63.8

Los Angeles, CA 62.4

Spokane, WA 62.1

Omaha, NE 61.5

Dallas, TX 60.5

Minneapolis, MN 60.4

Salt Lake City, UT 60.3

Las Vegas, NV 59.6

Houston, TX 59.5

Laredo, TX 58.3

Des Moines, IA 56.0

San Jose, CA 55.4

Anchorage, AK 53.8

San Antonio, TX 49.5

Note: According to NIJ, although most ADAM sites are known by the name of the largest local

city, the catchment area of most sites encompasses substantially larger geographic areas than

the urban center. The standard catchment area is the county. NIJ anticipates that the ADAM

network eventually will expand to a total of 75 sites to cover the largest U.S. cities (i.e., cities

with populations of 200,000 or more, or the largest city in states without a population center of

more than 200,000 inhabitants).

Source: NIJ, Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program: 1999 Annual Report on Adult

and Juvenile Arrestees (NCJ 181426, June 2000).

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