ABSTRACT
This chapter examines postwar street crime trends in the United States by the offender's age, gender, and race. The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) collects two main types of data—crimes known to police and arrests. The UCR is the only US data source that includes crime data over time on the offenders' age, gender, and race for the entire postwar period. The chapter considers postwar trends in arrest rates by age and gender before turning to a consideration of arrest rates by race and ethnicity. It examines no consistent trend in the ratio of female to male aggravated assaults, and the ratio of female to male murders actually declined during the postwar years. The chapter argues that an understanding of street crime trends in postwar America requires explanation of the dramatic increase in African American crime rates. It discusses some of the general difficulties in using the UCR to track crime trends by the offender's race and other characteristics.
