Both violent crime and property crime fell in 2018 from the previous year, according to “Crime in the United States, 2018,” the annual crime statistics report produced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting Program. 

The crime data was voluntarily reported to the FBI by more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies across the country.  In 2018, there were about 1.2 million violent crimes, according to the report. Nearly every category of violent crime decreased in the last year, with the exception of rape offenses, which increased 2.7 percent.

In the property crime category, there were nearly 7.2 million offenses reported in 2018. Burglaries, larceny-thefts, and motor vehicle thefts all declined in 2018 compared with 2017 data.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has launched a redesigned website that offers a modern look and feel, enhanced technology, and a more user-friendly experience on mobile devices.  The OJJDP website now features state-of-the-art search capabilities, updated site navigation, and a simplified layout. New content includes a state support page, expanded funding information, and a multimedia page that incorporates video messages from the OJJDP Administrator, recorded webinars, training, and more.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey collects information on nonfatal crimes by surveying a nationally representative sample of U.S. households.

After declining by more than 60 percent from 1994 to 2015 (the most recent year in which a one-year decline was observed), the number of violent-crime victims rose between 2015 and 2016 and again between 2016 and 2018.

The National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ) Sentinel Events Initiative takes a learning approach to error in the criminal justice system. This approach advocates for nonblaming, forward-looking, all-stakeholder event reviews of negative criminal justice outcomes, which might include a death in custody, a routine police encounter that escalates to violence, a wrongful conviction, or a “near miss” in which a negative event is narrowly avoided.

Drawing on years of research, stakeholder input, and beta projects, NIJ launched a National Demonstration Project in 2018 to implement sentinel event reviews across the country. This webinar will describe the sentinel events approach and discuss successes, challenges, and lessons learned from the demonstration project.

This no-cost webinar, hosted by the Justice Clearinghouse, will:

• Outline the sentinel events approach.
• Share how criminal justice practitioners can implement sentinel event reviews in their jurisdictions.
• Include information about a National Demonstration Project being implemented across the country by NIJ and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Date:  October 22, 2019

Time:  1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m., ET

Nearly every crime has a digital component. As such, police leaders are under increased pressure to dedicate resources to combatting cyber-enabled crime. The purpose of this document is to offer law enforcement executives key considerations for establishing a cybercrime unit, including scope, recruitment/staffing, interagency partnerships, training, and funding.  Additional resources can be found at the Law Enforcement Cyber Center website.