Who gets arrested in Cook County? How about DuPage County? Are more men arrested than women? More Blacks than whites? Some organizations keep a records of arrests, but generally it is difficult get precise numbers on the number of local, city or statewide arrests. However, the FBI compiled arrest records in 2011.
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program counts one arrest for each separate instance in which a person is arrested, cited, or summoned for an offense. The UCR Program collects data on 28 offenses. The highest number of arrests were for drug abuse violations (1,531,251 arrests), larceny-theft (1,264,986 arrests) and driving under the influence (1,215,077 arrests).
The breakdown for drug arrests is particularly interesting. 18 % for sale/manufacturing and 82 % for possession. About 50 % of the arrests are for marijuana possession (across the South, North, West and Midwest of the United States). Heroin and Cocaine possession account for about 15% of the arrests for drug possession. It would be interesting to see if arrests for marijuana possession has declined since 2011 as more states legalize marijuana use in some circumstances.
To address some common questions. Overall, the trend is that crime (or at least the arrest rate) is declining for adults and juveniles. In 2011, 69.2 percent of persons arrested were white, 28 percent were Black and the remaining 2.4 percent were other races. Over 74 percent of the persons arrested in the nation during 2011 were males and they accounted for 80.4 percent of the violent crime and 62.9 percent of the persons arrested for property crime.
For more information about crime rates for certain ages, genders and races check out: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/persons-arrested/persons-arrested