Arrests for Property and Violent Crimes

Data Provider: NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services

Related Indicators:

Young Adult Arrests for Property Crimes ages 18-24 [view data]
Young Adult Arrests for Violent Crimes ages 18-24 [view data]
Youth Arrests - Property Crimes - under age 18 [view data]
Youth Arrests - Violent Crimes - under age 18 [view data]

Life Area:

Civic Engagement

Definition:

Index crimes form the traditional quick view of crimes as established by the FBI more than 75 years ago. Violent index crimes include murder, non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

Property index crimes are burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. A young adult arrest is recorded in the jurisdiction where the arrest occurs (which may not be the jurisdiction that the crime occurred), and only the most serious offense that was committed during a crime incident or multiple crime incidents is counted. Note that arrest numbers cannot be combined with crime numbers for the following reasons:

many persons who commit crimes are never arrested; -
a single arrest can involve multiple crime incidents, such as when the arrest of a burglar reveals that he is responsible for a number of burglaries over a period of months; and
more than one person can be arrested for the same crime incident, such as when one burglary is committed by a pair of people working as a team.

The young adult arrest rates are calculated by dividing the number of reported arrests for violent and property index crimes of young adults ages 18 through 24 years old by an estimate of the population of young people of the same age group in that county.

Information related to juvenile arrests and criminal activity is collected by the Division of Criminal Justice Services through the Uniform Crime Reporting program. This data is submitted by agencies that follow the reporting guidelines outlined by the Federal Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program which are designed to capture the criminal activity of juveniles. This data is not limited to court or formal arrest actions. Data includes both formal arrests and police contacts with juveniles where there is probable cause that an offense was committed but no formal charges were filed.

Data quality reviews showed that UCR reported data related to youth under age 18 appeared to be incomplete for certain counties and agencies. In 2009, DCJS contacted all reporting agencies to reinforce the reporting requirements for UCR juvenile data. Juvenile arrests counts are not available for New York City.

Violent crimes include murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Property crimes include burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft.

Significance:

Persons under 18 are considered juveniles for purposes of prosecution and are handled by the Youth Part of Criminal Court or the Family Court system in New York State.

Arrests of young adults ages 18 through 24 years are handled by the adult criminal court system in New York State.

Note:

In 2020, arrests declined following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. When comparing trends in 2020 to previous years, caution should be used.

Findings:

The rate of violent crime arrests per 10,000 young adults ages 18 through 24 dropped from 55.8 in 2017 to 48.5 in 2024, while the property crime arrest rate dropped from 100.6 to 70.7 during the same time period.
Arrests of young adults ages 18 through 24 years for violent crimes dropped 15 percent in 2024 as compared with 2017. Arrests for property crimes decreased 31 percent during this same time period.
The rate of violent crime arrests per 10,000 juveniles dropped from 10.8 in 2017 to 6.4 in 2024. The rate of property crime arrests fell from 33.7 to 18.2 per 10,000 juveniles during the same time period.
Arrests of juveniles under 18 years outside of New York City for violent crimes dropped 42 percent in 2024 compared with 2017. Arrests for property crimes among this age group fell 46 percent during the same time period.