By Kevin Krilich
In an interesting look at arrest data shows that arrests of males for violent crime are highly prevalent, as well as showing that there are over 4,400 arrests for every 100,000 citizens of the United States.
Statistics from the United States Census Bureau show that over 74% of people arrested in 2009 were male, with the same report showing a 3% increase of total arrests. However, the per capita arrest ratio decreased by over 3%.
The Census Bureau’s 2012 edition of the “Statistical Abstract of the United States,” an all-inclusive statistical summary of social, political and economic organizations in the U.S., reported that, nationally, 11,062,554 arrests were made in 2009, excluding traffic-related arrests that were not DUIs. That number includes people who may have been arrested more than once during the year.
Of those 11 million arrests, 8,263,307 males were arrested, which account 74.7% of all arrests. Compare this to the 2,799,247 females that were arrested, which only make up 25.3% of all 2009 arrests.
Going deeper into the arrest statistics, males account for 81.3% of all arrests related to violent crimes such as murder, robbery and aggravated assault. Females account for 43.6% of all property crime related arrests, including burglary and larceny.
This graph better illustrates the difference in arrest rates for these crime categories among males and females. Click the graph to enlarge it.
Data taken from the Census Bureau
According to Dr. Christopher Williams, criminal justice department chair and professor at Bradley University, the large discrepancies between male and female arrests have neither a singular or easy explanation.
“Males are responsible for the majority of crime, including the overwhelming majority of violent crime, in our society. When women do commit crime, it is more often property or drug-related offending,” Dr. Williams said.
Dr. Williams said that the reason why more males than females commit crimes, which in turn would lead to more males being arrested, are numerous. He cited several of the more prominent causes that may prompt people to commit crimes and get arrested, including, “biological differences between males and females, differences in the ways males and females are socialized, differences in the opportunity structure, and differences in the way males and females are treated by the criminal justice system.”
“For example, men commit more white collar crime because, historically, they have held positions allowing them access whereas women have not,” Dr. Williams said.
He used this specific example illustrate how America’s opportunity structure can lead to more crimes being committed by a certain gender and subsequently lead to more arrests.
Compared to 2008, male arrests rose by 176,607, which is a 2.1% increase. Female arrests rose by 6.4%, with 176,574 more arrests in 2009 than in the previous year.
Total arrests increased by 353,154, which is a 3.1% jump over 2008. Overall though, there was a 3.6% decrease in the per capita arrest ratio. The year 2009 had 4,469 people arrested per 100,000 citizens, compared to 4,636 arrests per 100,000 people. It is important to consider the population sizes of over 247.5 million in 2009 and about 231 million in 2008.
Bredt Boughner, a senior at Bradley University, felt that arrests around Peoria have been pretty consistent over his past four years, and may have even dropped a small amount.
“Over my past four years of living in Peoria, I don’t think there’s been a time where I heard about a higher number of arrests than usual,” Boughner said. “I mean, I don’t have the numbers and I don’t frequent all parts of town all of the time, but I feel like the arrest rate is probably pretty consistent because the crime around here seems pretty consistent.”
Boughner said that he feels like Bradley’s campus is relatively tame, though he guesses that arrests for drinking-related incidents are probably the driving force for arrests among students.
The Census Bureau data for 2008 arrests records can be found by clicking here.
The Census Bureau Data for 2009 arrests records can be found by clicking here and looking under “324: Arrests by Sex and Age: 2009.”