Crime and Violent Crime Oklahoma ranks 17th in the nation for total crime as reported by the FBI Uniform Crime Report, released October 13, 1996. In fact, the average sentence length for violent offenders in Oklahoma is 24 years or 288 months, while the average non-violent offender is serving 10.4 years or 124 months. The long term effect of the increasing number of violent offenders who stay longer on the Oklahoma DOC has undoubtedly caused the continuing upward pressure on inmate population. Juvenile arrests for violent crime in Oklahoma and nationally have increased dramatically over the past nine years. The juvenile arrests were most frequently for robbery and felonious assault.
Violent crime is an act involving force or the attempted use of force against another.
Examples of this type of crime are most frequently murder, manslaughter, sex offenses, assault, robbery, or attempts at such behavior. 16,000 Oklahoma incarcerated 552 persons per 100,000 residents in 1995, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice. This number has grown steadily from 323 per 100,000 in 1988 to the current figure. The Oklahoma rate of incarceration has very closely paralleled the state violent crime rate for the same periods. During this same time period Oklahoma has gone from 7th in the nation in 1988 to 3rd in the nation now for incarcerated inmates per 100,000 residents.