The 200th Newsletter Crime Data Quiz Spectacular

Let's see how you do!

March is a weird time for this newsletter.

Last year’s trends are firmly established and not really worth revisiting — at least in any way that’s interesting to me the analyst and you the reader. The FBI hasn’t come out with any formal 2025 reports yet and it’s still slightly too soon to be seriously reading the tea leaves (though that didn’t stop me from trying last week).

Still, this is the 200th edition of this newsletter, so I wanted to do something a little different. I remembered that I made a quiz on this newsletter when it was still a baby and figured that might be a fun way to pass the time and see how closely you all are paying attention! 10 questions plus a bonus.

The answers are at the bottom, so let me know how you do in the comments! Anything less than 10 of 10 is unacceptable.

Question 1:

Question 2:

Question 3:

Question 4:

Question 5:

Question 6:

Question 7:

Question 8:

Question 9:

Question 10:

Bonus Question!

Answers:

1 - 10% - The FBI reported a 9.2 percent motor vehicle theft clearance rate in 2024 which is not great! The national motor vehicle theft clearance rate has typically hovered around 15 percent but fell all the way to 8 percent in 2023. It probably cleared 10 percent in 2025 based on the FBI’s monthly data, but not by much. Still not great!

2 - 1989 - The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) first started in 1989 though only around 1/3 of the nation’s law enforcement agencies were using it as of 2015. That figure was closer to 90 percent in 2024 (87.2 percent to be exact) with both NYPD and LAPD becoming compliant in recent years.

3 - 1930 - The first version of the Uniform Crime report as we know it today was published in 1930. The first version of the UCR published by the FBI didn’t come out until August 1930. Prior to that, the UCR was the brainchild and responsibility of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).

4 - NCVS - The Bureau of Justice Statistics runs the massive nationwide survey called the National Crime Victimization Survey or NCVS. They have a handy dashboard that makes it super easy to break down their survey data.

5 - 2014 - This was sort of a trick question because I asked about the number of murders, not the rate. There were right around 14,000 murders in the US in 2025 (my best guess!) and, while we can’t say when the murder rate per 100k was lower, that’s roughly in line with the number of murders in 2014 (14,177 per the FBI).

6 - 30% - According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, just 30.5 percent of property crimes in 2024 and 29.9 percent in 2023 were reported by victims to police. The share varies by type of offense, with only about a quarter of thefts but 80 percent of auto thefts being reported each year. Have to have that insurance payout on stolen cars.

7 - 7 million - The FBI reported 6.7 million fewer property crimes in 2024 than they reported in 1990 (5,986,400 versus 12,655,486) and that gap likely exceeded 7 million in 2025. Burglary has fallen by 75 percent in the last 25 years while theft and motor vehicle theft have both fallen by around 50 percent.

8 - Found not guilty at trial - A case can be considered cleared if an agency has enough evidence to make an arrest but the offender dies, the victim refuses to cooperate, or prosecution is declined for reasons other than lack of probable cause. What happens in a trial is immaterial to a case’s clearance status as far as the FBI is concerned.

9 - Clarksburg, West Virginia - CJIS is housed in West Virginia, which you would know if you’d listened to my podcast episode with FBI Assistant Director Timothy Ferguson.

10 - Monthly - The IACP started UCR with monthly reporting with the first issue covering 400 cities with a population of around 20 million. The FBI took over in September 1930 and within a few years they started quarterly reporting, then semiannual and finally annual reports. Quarterly reports were begun again by the FBI in 2020 and they are now reporting monthly data again, a change that started in 2025.

Bonus - Vince Young was the GOAT.

How did you do?