The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of more than 17,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention. During 2004, law enforcement agencies active in the UCR Program represented 94.2 percent of the total population.

This section includes offense statistics Violent Crimes, Property Crimes, and Hate Crimes. Violent Crimes include the offenses of Murder, Forcible Rape, Robbery, and Aggravated Assault. Property crimes include the offenses of Burglary, Larceny-theft, Motor Vehicle Theft, and Arson. This section also includes extensive data tables.

Law enforcement agencies reporting crime to the FBI can clear, or “close“ offenses in one of two ways: by arrest or by exceptional means. To clear an offense within the UCR Program's guidelines, the reporting agency must adhere to certain criteria, which are outlined in this section.

In the UCR Program, one arrest is counted for each separate instance in which an individual is arrested, cited, or summoned for criminal acts in the crimes defined and tracked by the Program. This section provides the number of arrest occurrences that were reported by law enforcement.

This Section includes two special reports: Infant Victims: An Exploratory Study, which examines the characteristics of and circumstances surrounding criminal acts against infants; and Arrest of Juveniles for Drug Abuse Violations from 1994 to 2003, which analyzes data regarding juveniles arrested for drug abuse violations during the past 10 years.

Each year, law enforcement agencies report the total number of sworn law enforcement officers and civilians in their agency as of October 31. This section of Crime in the United States, 2004, presents data on the number and rate of law enforcement officers and civilian employees throughout the United States.

Include estimation and table construction methodology, definitions of Offenses in the UCR and reporting areas, a discussion comparing and contrasting the UCR and the National Crime Victims Survey, a directory of State UCR Programs, a National UCR Program directory, and a list of publications provided by the UCR Program.