Report on the Rates of Homicide in Utah

2016-2020

In Utah, the rate of homicide has greatly increased from 2016-2020. The
numbers go from 2.4 homicides per 100,000 in 2016, to 3.1 homicides per
100,000 in 2020. I will do an overview of how I have found this information and
how much it has changed over the years.

*Homicides per 100,000 people*

*Yellow is United States data; Green is Utah data*

This graph I have created shows the amount of homicides that has
happened in Utah throughout 2016-2020. This gives a visual representation of the
statistics I have found and can help understand how much it has fluctuated
throughout 2016 and 2020. This data showed me that in 2016, there were a high
rate of homicide crimes, but lowered through 2018. It then reached its peak in
2020, where it hasn’t been this bad quite some time. To speak specifically, in 2016
and 2017, there were 2.4 homicide offenses per 100,000 people. In 2018, it
dropped down to 2 homicide offenses per 100,000 people. In 2019 it started its
incline again with 2.4 homicides offenses per 100,000 people. Lastly, with the
highest recording in quite some time, is 2020 with 3.1 homicide offenses per
100,000 people in Utah.

I created this using the FBI Crime Data Explorer and looked at each year
and how many homicides there were. This website counts their violent crimes by
only counting the most serious cases, this is called the “hierarchy rule”. It is also
important to note that this is not reflecting all of the crime that happens,
considering this data only reflects the reported cases and we don’t know how
many are unreported.

Another thing I learned about in this module was the crime rate v. the
crime total. To put it simply, the crime rate is how often crimes are committed
compared to the population total, like the FBI CDE site display, they show
homicides per population total, which is multiplied by 100,00. The crime total is
just how many crimes are committed in all. For example, we can look at Utah’s
homicide rate vs. the national average in 2020. For every 100,000 people, there
are 3.1 people involved in homicide crimes in Utah. While generally in the United
States, there are 6.5 people involved in homicide crimes. This puts into
perspective how many are counted in Utah vs. United States, which is crazy.

In conclusion, the homicide rates have drastically increased since 2016.

While it is important to remember that a lot of crimes are not reported, we can
still take this as a way of looking at the rate of crime in Utah at this time.