Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data collected from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) says Tennessee ranks third in the nation in violent crimes per capita.
According to the annual FBI report, the number of violent crimes per 100,000 people in Tennessee in 2021 was 674. The only regions with higher violent crime were Arkansas, averaging 708 violent crimes per 100,000 people, and Washington, D.C. (included in the data despite not being a state) at a whopping 968 violent crimes per 100,000 people.
“Violent crime consists of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, the [Uniform Crime Reporting] revised rape offense category (which includes offenses of rape, sodomy, and sexual assault with an object when considering the revision of the rape definition in the traditional violent crime category), aggravated assault, and robbery,” according to the FBI.
The report suggests that overall, violent crime declined in the United States between 2020 and 2021, but only because the nation saw a sharp drop in robberies.
“While overall violent crime volume … and violent crime rate decreased, this change was driven mainly by a drop in robbery offenses from 220,200 in 2020 to 202,200 in 2021, an 8.2% decrease,” the report said.
Murders, however, are on the rise.
“From 2020 to 2021, the total violent crime rate for the nation decreased 1.7%, from 402.6 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants (all rates shown are per 100,000 inhabitants) in 2020 to 395.7 in 2021. Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses increased 4.3% while revised rape offenses increased 3.4%. Aggravated assault offenses remained essentially unchanged from 2020 to 2021.”
The FBI also noted that the change in violent crime between 2020 and 2021 does not “meet the criteria for statistical significance.”
The data only accounts for crimes that are reported.
Though the numbers were not officially reported in the FBI’s analysis, the federal law enforcement group says there was a sharp increase in deaths among law enforcement officers in 2021.
“Although not found in this report, 73 law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty in 2021 were killed as a result of felonious acts, whereas 56 died in accidents,” says the report. “Deaths resulting from felonious acts increased in 2021, rising more than 58% from the previous year.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Police Car at a Crime Scene” by cottonbro.
