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Research, Analysis & Evaluation
CRIME TRENDS

The Crime Trend publications below reflect crime as reported by local law enforcement agencies to the Connecticut Department of Public Safety (DPS), Division of State Police, Crimes Analysis Unit and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). These reports provide a relative measure of Connecticut's crime rates as compared to other States and the nation.
Criminal Justice
Criminal Justice Policy and Planning Division Calendar
Crime Statistics
Contents

CRIME TREND REPORTS
The Crime Trend Reports below are available in Adobe PDF format.  To view these documents either get the Adobe Reader OR use the Adobe PDF Converter.
Connecticut, U.S. and Adjacent Northeast States
Ranking of 50 States by Selected Crime Rates
Other UCR Based Reports
Excerpt from the "Comparative Analysis of Crime Rates... 1960 to 2007" publication listed above...
Total Crime Rate
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program defines total crime rate as an index for gauging fluctuations in the overall volume and rate of crime. Also known as the Crime Index, these seven offenses included the violent crimes of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault and the property crimes of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.
Connecticut’s total crime rate follows the pattern of other adjacent Northeast States, but typically at a lower rate. Overall, the total crime rate for Connecticut in 2007 (2.655.9 per 100,000 inhabitants) is the lowest it has been in 40 years.  As with most other adjacent States, the total crime rate peaked in 1980 and again in 1990 with a steady decline to 2007.  In 2007, Rhode Island had the highest crime rate when compared to other adjacent Northeast States. 
Chart1a Total Crime Rate
Crime Statistics
WHAT IS UNIFORM CRIME REPORTING (UCR)
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program gathers offense data for violent and property crimes. Offenses that make up the Crime Index are Part I crimes—violent crimes of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault; property crimes of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In addition to reporting Part I offenses, law enforcement agencies provide monthly data to the UCR Program on persons arrested for all other crimes except traffic violations, police officers killed or assaulted and hate crimes (reported Quarterly).

In 2007, more than 17,700 city, county, college and university, state, tribal, and federal agencies voluntarily participated in the UCR Program.
For more information, see UCR Frequently Asked Questions .
DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY
Law enforcement agencies that participate, forward crime data through their State UCR Programs in 46 States and the District of Columbia. Local agencies without State UCR Programs submit crime statistics directly to the FBI. Many states have mandatory reporting requirements, and many State UCR Programs collect data beyond those typically called for by the national UCR Program to address crime problems specific to their particular jurisdictions.

Law enforcement agencies tabulate the number of Part I crimes brought to their attention based on records of all reports of crime received from victims, officers who discover infractions, or other sources, and submit them each month to the FBI either directly or through their State UCR Programs.
CONNECTICUT UCR PARTICIPATION
Every month law enforcement agencies, and some colleges and universities throughout Connecticut submit UCR data to the DPS Crimes Analysis Unit. According to the Unit, there is 100% participation in the UCR Program over time.

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is a second generation UCR system that went into effect in Connecticut in 1993. NIBRS collects and reports data on each incident, and allows reporting of one or more offenses for any one incident. Information in UCR is summary based, meaning that only the highest level offense in any one incident is reported. Consequently, NIBRS data provides considerable more detail about an incident, and yields richer and more meaningful information than those produced by the summary UCR system.

A total of 182 entities reported within Connecticut in 2007. This includes the Connecticut State Police reporting as a separate entity.  With 169 municipalities in Connecticut, there are 92 separate local Police Departments (PD) which cover 85% of the State’s population.  Among the 92 local PD, 67 utilize NIBRS and 25 utilize UCR.  The Connecticut State Police use the NIBRS system and provide police services for another 81 Connecticut towns and places (or 15% of the State’s population).  In addition, there are 7 campus police departments also reporting, 5 of which use NIBRS and 2 that use the summary UCR system.  The State Capitol Police utilize the NIBRS system.
FBI DATA CAUTIONS

The FBI cautions data users of Crime in the United States against comparing statistical data of cities, counties, metropolitan areas, states, colleges or universities solely on the basis on their population coverage or student enrollment. In addition, the FBI cautions data users to exercise care in making any direct comparison between data in this publication and those in prior issues, because of differing levels of participation from year to year and reporting problems that require the FBI to estimate crime counts for certain contributors, the data may not be comparable from year to year.

Some factors that are known to affect the volume and type of crime occurring from place to place are:

  • Population density and degree of urbanization.
  • Variations in composition of the population, particularly youth concentration.
  • Stability of the population with respect to residents' mobility, commuting patterns, and transient factors.
  • Modes of transportation and highway system.
  • Economic conditions, including median income, poverty level, and job availability.
  • Cultural factors and educational, recreational, and religious characteristics.
  • Family conditions with respect to divorce and family cohesiveness.
  • Climate.
  • Effective strength of law enforcement agencies.
  • Administrative and investigative emphases of law enforcement.
  • Policies of other components of the criminal justice system (e.g. prosecutorial, judicial, correctional, and probation).
  • Citizens' attitudes toward crime.
  • Crime reporting practices of the citizenry.