FBI Crime Stats: Where Deerfield Stands

DEERFIELD, IL — New FBI data show a slight decrease in violent crime and increase in property crime in Deerfield last year, while violent and property crimes decreased nationwide from 2017 to 2018.

The FBI last week published the latest edition of its annual "Crime in the United States" report. It found the reported number of violent crimes in the United States fell 3.9 percent compared to 2017. The property crime rate also dropped nearly 7 percent from 2017.

Deerfield reported four violent crimes last year, down from five in the prior year. The number of property crimes increased by 5.4 percent to 137 in 2018, according to law enforcement data collected by the FBI.

The nationwide drop in violent crime represents the second straight annual decrease after increases in 2015 and 2016. The FBI estimated there were 368.9 violent crimes for every 100,000 Americans last year.

In Deerfield, the violent crime rate was more than 94 percent lower than the national rate, with just 21 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2018. Last year, that included a single homicide, pushing the village's murder rate to 5.25 per 100,000, technically above the national rate of 5.0. There were no violent crimes in Bannockburn last year and just two in Riverwoods, one rape and one robbery, according to the FBI data.

Across the country, robbery fell 12 percent from 2017, murder and nonnegligent manslaughter decreased by 6.2 percent, and aggravated assault dropped by a fraction of a percent. Last year there was a single robbery in Deerfield, compared to two in 2017.

Rape was the only violent crime to increase nationwide last year. There were 139,380 cases of rape reported in the U.S. in 2018, up from 135,666 in 2017. There was a single rape reported in each of the last two years in Deerfield, according to FBI data.

The FBI also estimated there were nearly 7.2 million property crimes across the United States in 2018. Property crimes include burglary, larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson, and all five of the categories saw a decrease from 2017.

That equates to a national rate of 2,362.2 property crimes per 100,000 people, a decrease of 6.9 percent from the 2017 estimated rate. Deerfield's property crime rate was less than a third of the national average with 719.2 property crimes per 100,000 residents.

Other Deerfield 2018 crime statistics reported to the FBI:

• Robberies: 1
• Aggravated Assaults: 1
• Burglaries: 16
• Larceny/thefts: 115
• Motor vehicle thefts: 6

Notable nationwide findings:

• There were more than 1.2 million violent crimes across the country.
• Law enforcement made an estimated 10.3 million arrests in 2018 (excluding traffic violations) which is a slight decrease from 2017.
• The juvenile arrest rate fell 11 percent in 2018 over the 2017 rate.
• Victims of property crime, excluding arson, lost an estimated $16.4 billion in 2018.

The data used in the “Crime in the United States 2018” report was provided by more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies across the country.