Criminal Justice Statistics for Washington, D.C., and Other Major Cities

This report presents criminal justice statistics for the District of Columbia and other major cities based on (1) Crime Index data and (2) arrestees' drug testing data. The 1999 Crime Index total rates for these large cities ranged from a high of 10,416 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants in Detroit, Michigan, to a low of 2,944 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants in San Jose, California. For Washington, D.C., the 1999 Crime Index total rate was 8,062 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. According to a recent National Institute of Justice (NIJ) report, 69 percent of the adult males arrested in the District of Columbia in calendar year 1999 tested positive for at least one type of drug. This figure was five percentage points higher than the median rate (64 percent) of the use of any drug among the adult males arrested that year in the 34 urban sites covered by NIJ's report.