Firearm Related Index Crimes

Related Indicators:

• Index Crimes-Firearm Related General Population [view data]

Life Area:

Community

Definition:

New York State Uniform Crime Report Index crimes include data on firearms present during the commission of a murder, forcible rape, robbery, or aggravated assault. Collectively, these are referred to as Violent Index crimes.

The firearm-related crime rate is the number of reported Violent Index crimes where a firearm was present divided by an estimated population, and multiplied by 10,000.

Significance:

The number of Violent Index crimes known to police and involving firearms is a key indicator of the seriousness of crime in an area.

Note:

• A crime is recorded in the jurisdiction in which it is reported to have occurred. For crime reporting program purposes, only the most serious offense in a crime incident is recorded.
• New York City does not report firearm-related crimes to DCJS so these data are only available for the Rest of the State.

Findings:

• In the Rest of State region, there were 5,079 firearm-related Index crimes reported to police during 2010, compared to 5,759 in 2005. This marks an 11.8 percent decrease over the course of 5 years in the number of Violent Index crimes in which firearms were reported to have been present. The rate of firearm crimes also declined from 5.2 to 4.6 per 10,000 population between 2005 and 2010.