The FBI recently issued its 2014 Crime in the United States report, and when you look at the stats provided in that report, you have to extrapolate a little bit to understand the bigger picture.

Perhaps surprisingly, crime overall and violent crime in particular is down. That’s true of suburban areas nationwide, it’s true of the state of Illinois and it’s true of Kane County communities.

Obviously, there are exceptions and anomalies, as well. The following is a summary of the report’s statistics, links to 2014 and 2013 FBI pages for comparison and a few brief observations about the findings. As always, you can decide for yourself how to interpret the stats.

• FBI 2014 Report Homepage
• FBI 2013 Report Homepage

Violent Crime

The city of Aurora has the highest number of violent crimes of any community in Kane County — 558 reported in 2014, according to the FBI.

That said, the number of violent crimes in Aurora has steadily dropped over the years, and the trend continues with the most-recent data. Aurora’s total of 558 violent crimes in 2014 is down from 601 in 2013, a decrease of 7.16 percent year over year.

The Aurora numbers are within a percentage point of the statewide drop in violent crime — a whopping 8.2 percent decline year over year.

Of course, there are exceptions, but some of those statistics can be misleading, as well. Violent crime in Geneva, for example, is up year over year — but headlines like “More Violent Crime Reported in Geneva” probably should be taken with a grain of salt. Geneva reported seven violent crimes in 2014, compared to five in 2013 — numbers so low that a change of even one crime can reflect a big percentage difference from year to year.

To compare stats for your town for the past two years, visit these FBI web pages:

• 2014 Illinois Crime Stats by City
• 2013 Illinois Crime Stats by City

Violent Crime in Kane County Cities 2014

1. Aurora — 558
2. Elgin — 221
3. Batavia — 36
4. Carpentersville — 33
5. Montgomery — 27
6. South Elgin — 26
7. North Aurora — 23
8. St. Charles — 20
9. Bartlett — 14
10. Geneva — 7
11. Huntley — 7
12. Pingree Grove — 3
13. Campton Hills — 2
14. Hampshire — 2
15. Hinckley — 2
16. West Dundee — 1

Violent Crime By County

Among counties in Illinois, Kane County reported the ninth-highest number of violent crimes in 2014. That ranking is up from 14th-highest in 2013.

The FBI underlines that the county numbers reflect non-city statistics, primarily those compiled from sheriff’s offices. So the county stats reflect a total of rural-area violent crimes, not a total number of violent crimes within a county’s borders.

Proportionately, Kane County’s numbers did go up more than other counties, from 45 violent crimes in 2013 to 73 violent crimes in 2014.

Top 10 Illinois Counties for Violent Crime 2014

• 2014 statistics for non-city jurisdictions in Illinois

1. Cook County — 203
2. Will County — 145
3. Winnebago County — 126
4. Sangamon County — 117
5. St. Clair County — 98
6. Champaign County — 87
7. Lake County — 75
8. Peoria County — 75
9. Kane County — 73
10. McHenry County — 64

Year-Over-Year Violent Crime in Illinois

Overall, crime is down in Illinois. And even though the population is declining (Illinois’ population was 12,890,552 in 2013 and dropped to 12,880,580 in 2014), the crime rate per capita is down, as well.

Violent crime:

• 51,956 in 2013
• 47,663 in 2014
• 8.3 percent decline in total

Violent crime per 100,000 residents:

• 403.1 in 2013
• 370.0 in 2014
• 8.2 percent decline per capita

National Overview of Violent Crime

• In 2014, an estimated 1,165,383 violent crimes occurred nationwide, a decrease of 0.2 percent from the 2013 estimate. (See Table 1/1A)

• When considering 5- and 10-year trends, the 2014 estimated violent crime total was 6.9 percent below the 2010 level and 16.2 percent below the 2005 level. (See Table 1/1A)

• There were an estimated 365.5 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in 2014, a rate that declined 1.0 percent when compared with the 2013 estimated violent crime rate. (See Table 1/1A)

• Aggravated assaults accounted for 63.6 percent of violent crimes reported to law enforcement in 2014. Robbery offenses accounted for 28.0 percent of violent crime offenses; rape (legacy definition) accounted for 7.2 percent; and murder accounted for 1.2 percent. (Based on Table 1/1A)

• Information collected regarding types of weapons used in violent crime showed that firearms were used in 67.9 percent of the nation’s murders, 40.3 percent of robberies, and 22.5 percent of aggravated assaults. (Weapons data are not collected for rape.) (See Expanded Homicide Data Table 7, Robbery Table 3, and the Aggravated Assault Table)

Murder (and Non-Negligent Manslaughter)

The number of murder charges (which includes non-negligent manslaughter charges) in Aurora was up to eight in 2014, compared to four in 2013. That number might seem disappointing to law enforcement officials and citizens, considering Aurora celebrated in 2012 when there were zero murders in this city of more than 200,000 people, but again, there is context to consider.

Chicago (population 2,724,121) reported 411 murders in 2014. East St. Louis (26,523) reported 27 murders, Rockford (149,586) reported 17 and Joliet (147,838) reported eight. Chicago Heights (30,456), Harvey (25,377), Maywood (24,174) and Peoria (116,923) each reported seven.

Top 12 Murder (Manslaughter) Stats for Illinois Cities 2014

1. Chicago — 411
2. East St. Louis — 27
3. Rockford — 17
4. Joliet — 8
5. Aurora — 7
6. Chicago Heights — 7
7. Harvey — 7
8. Maywood — 7
9. Peoria — 7
10. Kankakee — 6
11. Waukegan — 6
12. Champaign — 5

Crime Overall

Obviously, violent crime and murder stats by themselves don’t begin to tell the story about crime and safety in our communities. Nor do statistics themselves begin to measure the effectiveness of crime-fighting, crime prevention, recidivism reduction or any of the programs that aim to take a bite out of crime.

Statistics worth noting in the FBI report are many, but clearly violent crime is a small percentage of the total crimes committed. See the links provided above to find out more about crimes such as robbery, aggravated assault, property crime, burglary, larceny/theft, motor-vehicle theft and arson.

If you’ve been caught up in an accusation of crime, I’m sure you can understand why it is so damaging to your reputation. My friend recently was taken to court for a crime he didn’t commit and that can really damage a persons social image. He lost his job because of it. Thankfully, while searching for legal representation similar to Raleigh felony defense lawyer. He found the right legal defense and cleared his name. Now everything is back to normal for my friend but I digress. Finding the right legal defense is crucial, the criminal defense attorney that you choose could determine whether you win or lose your case and what sentence you will get.

You can find out more about how this report was compiled on the FBS’s Data Declaration page.

Violent Crime Illinois Counties

Categories (from left to right): City, violent crime (VC), murder (M), rape (R), robbery (Rob), aggravated assault (AA), property crime (PC), burglary (B), larceny/theft (L/T), motor-vehicle theft (MVT), arson (Ar).

CITY Alexander	VC 15	M 0	R 2		Rob 0	AA 13	PC 41	B 15	L/T 22	MVT 4	Ar 3
Champaign	87	4	14		8	61	550	195	332	23	5
Clinton	5	0	1		0	4	106	24	77	5	0
Cook	203	0	31		44	128	1,074	289	693	92	14
De Kalb	10	0	1		0	9	163	18	143	2	1
De Witt	5	0	3		0	2	33	17	13	3	1
DuPage	47	1	6		5	35	736	143	564	29	0
Ford	10	0	0		1	9	90	28	61	1	1
Henry	3	0	0		0	3	72	25	43	4	0
Jackson	28	1	7		4	16	195	73	111	11	0
Jersey	9	0	7		0	2	114	32	80	2	0
Kane	73	0	14		9	50	389	119	251	19	3
Kankakee	49	5	9		7	28	361	126	210	25	10
Kendall	25	0	4		1	20	226	65	154	7	4
Lake	75	0	24		15	36	1,387	385	946	56	7
Macon	22	1	0		3	18	295	66	226	3	0
Macoupin	4	0	0		0	4	190	65	121	4	0
Madison	57	0	8		1	48	538	169	332	37	3
Marshall	2	0	0		0	2	40	23	17	0	1
McHenry	64	0	17		3	44	453	107	346	0	5
McLean	25	0	5		1	19	177	62	109	6	0
Menard	5	0	2		0	3	31	9	21	1	0
Monroe	2	0	1		1	0	46	15	31	0	0
Peoria	75	0	7		14	54	744	196	515	33	4
Piatt	19	0	4		2	13	67	25	40	2	1
Rock Island	47	0	4		2	41	231	46	181	4	1
Sangamon	117	1	18		9	89	572	170	358	44	5
Stark	3	0	0		0	3	72	29	41	2	1
St. Clair	98	3	19		13	63	510	181	279	50	6
Tazewell	27	0	6		0	21	210	61	145	4	4
Vermilion	61	0	17		5	39	486	170	301	15	3
Will	145	3	31		20	91	1,002	346	591	65	13
Williamson	15	1	5		1	8	253	85	154	14	0
Winnebago	126	4	25		17	80	789	287	456	46