Data Detective: How to Find and Understand Crime Data in Chicago and Beyond

Introducing: Data Detective

Welcome to the inaugural installment of our new Research Team-led series, Data Detective, sharing insightful and important takeaways from their work. Whether crunching numbers or data storytelling, keep an eye on this series for more.

Analyzing Crime Data to Confirm Accuracy (or Dispel Myths)

Chicago is often labeled in headlines as “the world’s most dangerous city.” But the data shows that that isn’t true. So, how do you find the real numbers? Keep scrolling for our quick guide.

Contrary to claims, Illinois’ crime rates are declining—and both violent and property crimes fall below the national average.

• Go to the source.
  1. Go to the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer (CDE) and navigate to the Documents & Downloads tab.
  2. Scroll down to the Crime in the United States Annual Reports section. Select the appropriate year and Offenses Known to Law Enforcement Officers data collection, and download.
  3. For city statistics, use CIUS Table 8.
  4. Quick tip: Tables 9 – 11 cover counties, states, and universities.
• Read the table. 
  1. Columns include geography, population, and counts of violent and property crimes.
  2. NOTE: These counts are reported crimes, not necessarily prosecuted cases.
• Locate your geography.
  1. Open the spreadsheet and search (CTRL + F) for your location. Now, let’s use Chicago.
• Pull the numbers.
  • In 2024, Chicago reported:
    1. Population: 2,638,698
    2. Violent crimes: 14,245
• Normalize the data.
  1. Raw numbers don’t tell the whole story. After all, Chicago is the third-largest city in the U.S.
  2. To calculate the violent crime rate: (14,245 ÷ 2,638,698) × 100,000 = 539.85
  3. That’s about 540 crimes per 100,000 people.
• Contextualize the information.
  1. According to FBI’s data table for 2024, Chicago isn’t even in the top 100 U.S. cities for violent crime among those with 100,000+ residents.
     • Among cities with 500,000+ residents, it’s not even in the top 20 when looking at this same data.
  2. NOTE: Interpret carefully. The FBI notes that comparing crime rates across jurisdictions does not take many variables into account, including population density and economic conditions.
• Dig deeper.
  1. Now that you know where to find the data, you can investigate trends of specific crimes across different geographies or timelines.
     • For example, by analyzing the data, Chicago has seen consistent reductions in the ‘murder and nonnegligent manslaughter’ category’s year-over-year since 2020.
  2. Additionally, most major cities publish their own crime data, which are great resources to use.
     • More information published by the Chicago Police Department can be found in their CompStat reports, which highlight detailed drivers in reductions of crime rates across multiple categories year-over-year from 2020 onwards, including murders and robberies.

Key Takeaway

Headlines often oversimplify. By using evidence-based research, we found that Chicago’s crime rate is lower than comparable metropolitan areas and trending downwards. Illinois continues to focus on safety and transparency for residents and communities, and that effort has been reflected in the data.

Get Curious

What data would you like our Research Team to tackle next? Let us know, and we’ll get to sleuthing!