Data Provider: NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services
Civic Engagement
Index crimes form the traditional quick view of crimes as established by the FBI more than 75 years ago. They are classified as the most serious offenses, and are the crimes referred to in newspaper headlines that accompany the annual release of national data, usually in terms of such as, 'crime is up' or 'crime dips by 5 percent.' 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 distinction is made between violent and property crimes because their arrest trends generally differ. 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. Some people try to relate arrest numbers with crime numbers of the same type. The results can be very misleading, for the following reasons:
The young adult arrest rates are calculated by dividing the number of reported arrests for violent and property index crimes of young adults ages 16 through 21 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.
Recent data quality reviews showed that reported data 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.
Persons under 16 are considered juveniles for purposes of prosecution and are handled by the family court system in New York State.
Arrests of young adults ages 16 through 21 years are handled by the adult criminal court system in New York State.