ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the extent to which violence and violent crime feature in American life, drawing on a variety of sources. It considers the various circumstances by which individuals die or are injured by violent criminal and noncriminal means. Index crime rates from Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) represent only a fraction of the actual levels of violent crime: those that are reported to or detected by the police and that the police record and report to the FBI. The chapter also examines those accidents that involve the use of weapons, self-inflicted death and injury, i.e., suicide or attempted suicide, police homicides, and death and injury incurred by police officers. Citizen discretion in reporting crimes contributes to the production of a UCR crime rate that is far below the actual level of crime. Aggravated assault, by definition, involves the use of weapons or threat of use of weapons with the intention of inflicting injury.
