Joe Edwards
Newsweek
August 9, 2024
As of mid-2024, robbery rates in the U.S. have varied widely across cities, with some urban areas experiencing particularly high levels of this crime. Robbery, defined in a recent Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) report as “theft or attempted theft involving force or the threat of force,” appears to remain a concern in these cities, despite a general downward trend in several types of crimes nationally.
… Crime statistics such as these are not always straightforward to interpret.
“Robbery statistics depend on citizen reporting,” said Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “A community might show higher rates of reported robberies because residents are more likely to trust the police and more likely to report crimes when they occur. Unreported crimes don’t show up in police statistics, but that’s not a public safety indicator.”