The Modified Crime Index was the number of Crime
Index offenses plus arson.
Miller, Cohen, and Wiersema (31) develop cost of crime estimates that serve as weights in the cost of crime index for FBI Crime
Index offenses. (32) The direct cost of a Crime
Index offense is estimated through a comprehensive survey-based approach, while the indirect cost of crime (which includes the costs of pain and suffering and fear of death) is estimated through use of regression analyses on jury award data across offense types.
The results also show that racial background was not a significant predictor of involvement in the
index offenses. However, age ([beta] = .182, p <.01) had a moderate, positive effect on serious delinquency, with older youths reporting more frequent involvement.
are serving time for drug offenses which are not included as
index offenses.
[4] Twenty-nine percent of these youths were arrested for Crime
Index offenses. [5]
In Table 1, data are displayed concerning
Index offenses reported to the police and published in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports for 1997 (the most current data available).(55) In 1997, there were 13,175,100
Index offenses reported to the FBI.(56)
Index offenses are deemed to be the most serious offenses and are classified as Index crimes, or Part I crimes.
These four offenses - the Violent Crime
Index offenses - are the crimes used by the FBI to monitor levels and changes in violent crime arrests over the years.
While the reasons for the decline are not fully understood, they are often attributed to factors such as (1) more effective policing--even big cities such as New York have seen dramatic reductions in reported
index offenses through more focused police work; (2) incapacitation of criminals resulting from increased rates of incarceration, from fewer than 100 per 100,000 in 1972 to more than 750 per 100,000 today; and (3) new immigrant populations, which are able to breathe new life into previously declining communities.
Between 1994 and 2001, the juvenile arrest rate for Violent Crime
Index offenses fell 44 percent.
In 1996, males under age 25 made up 45 percent of the individuals arrested in the United States for
index offenses.(11) This group also committed 46 percent of the violent crimes and 59 percent of property crimes.(12) Another well-replicated study found that approximately 6 percent of all juveniles commit more than half of the crimes in the United States.(13)
The National Youth Survey (NYS) was used to assess
index offenses (NYS-INDEX) and minor delinquency (NYS-MINOR).
Cities and suburban counties, like the Nation as a whole, each experienced a 3-percent decline in the number of Crime
Index offenses reported.