This is the second in a series offering data from the FBI’s latest crime reports based on crimes reported to law enforcement. The first was Locations Of Violent Crime-Where Crime Happens. The FBI is a US Department of Justice agency.
Per the National Crime Victimization Survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the US Department of Justice, only 42 percent of violent crimes are reported to law enforcement. Thirty-two percent of property crimes are reported. The USDOJ uses a national survey (National Crime Victimization Survey) as a gauge for all crimes.
In addition, there are major law enforcement agencies not reporting their crime data to the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System for its latest report.
So what you read below is a subset of total crime.
Nevertheless, the numbers below are some of the best indicators we have as to the total number of “reported” crimes and the characteristics of crime.
The Data Below Needs Interpreting
First issue: Every category in the chart below states that all violent crimes have their most prominent time from midnight to 1:00 a.m. That can’t be correct.
Through a conversation with experts at the FBI, they believe that if a “time of crime” defaults to one time period; it’s a record-keeping issue when a “time of crime” is not listed in police reports.
Something similar happened during a previous article on the Top Months For Violent And Property Crime. The data states that December is the primary month and obviously, that cannot be true for all crimes. Police record-keeping systems default to the month it was submitted (December) to the FBI when no month was listed.
There are 18,000 (plus) law enforcement agencies submitting data to their state repositories and then they transfer their data to the FBI, thus inaccuracies are inevitable.
Thus, I’m eliminating midnight to 1:00 a.m. from this analysis.
Second issue: Although there are clusters of times when crime happens, readers will notice that it’s a matter of conjecture.
For example, I state that the highest numbers for assaults are between 3:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. However, someone will point out that noon to 1:00 p.m. also contains a large number of assaults.
What I tried to do is to establish periods where the bulk of crime happens while recognizing that criminal events occur throughout the day.
Findings
3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. seems to be times of concern for overall violence as people leave their jobs, go home, or head out to recreate after work.
Sex offenses are clustered from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Homicides seem clustered between 7:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.
Assaults seem clustered between 3:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.
The violent crimes above (except sex offenses) correlate with the cover of darkness as a contributing factor. Most offenders are under the influence of drugs or alcohol when arrested and, historically, evening hours are associated with substance use. Crime is a matter of opportunity and the mobility of crime victims during evening hours may play a role. By far, the most prominent location for crimes of violence is your home or the residence of another or public streets. Most violent crime occurs against a lone victim. Being with someone dramatically cuts your chance of violence.
When you realize that most sex offenses take place in a residential setting with a known offender, it reminds us that we must be on guard throughout the day. We need to be concerned with who we invite into our homes or when we go into the homes of others. Working (telecommuting) from your house “may” be a factor.
Property Crimes
The traditional criminological literature states that burglary is a daytime event which seems correct; most happen between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. The data shows burglaries decreasing after people return home from work.
Some data states that a percentage of non-strangers are responsible for burglaries and it’s possible that people who know you “may” be contributing to this finding. With burglaries, there are many unknown offenders yet when known, they accounted for almost 30 percent of burglars in occupied
The FBI considers robbery to be a property crime (which makes no sense being the definition is force or the threat of force). Robberies seem clustered from 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Robberies are an exception to the rule, most offenders are strangers who are looking for signs of vulnerability (i.e., intoxication, being alone, paying more attention to your smartphone than your surroundings).
Vehicle thefts seem clustered from 4:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. using the cover of darkness.
Conclusions
Violent and property crimes happen throughout the day. You can’t let your guard down just because it’s 8:00 in the morning.
While recognizing this, overall violence and assaults seem to be late afternoon to evening events.
Sex offenses are principally daytime events stretching to 9:00 p.m.
Homicides are clustered in the evening.
Robbery is an afternoon to late evening crime.
Burglaries are daytime events.
Motor vehicle crimes happen in the late afternoon but peak in the evening.
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