FBI’s crime data

Background Steps:
Step 1: Go to the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer here (you may have to cut-and-paste into your browser). https://crime-data-explorer.app.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend
Step 2: On this page, keep the “location” on United States, and the year, “2019”. Scroll down the page to where you see “Trend of violent crime.” Change the “from” box date to 1986. Keep the “to” box date 2019 (or, if available, 2020). Under “Crime select” box choose “All Violent Crimes.”
Step 3: Mark down your observations about the graph that results, nothing: what was the year of the highest violent RATE of crime? What was that rate? What year was the lowest rate? What was that rate? How would you overall describe the trends?
Step 4: Change the “crime select” box to “All Property Crimes.” As with violent crime, mark down your observations. What year was the highest rate of property crime? What year was the lowest? What were these rates? How would you describe the trend?
Step 5: Repeat looking at violent and non-violent crime rates, but change the “location” box to New Jersey, or whatever state you’d like to investigate.
Essay:
Write a two-page (500 words) essay where you first, in about 1-1.5 pages describe your investigation into the historical crime trends in the U.S. and New Jersey using FBI data from the Summary Reporting System (SRS) and National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and then present the major findings of that investigation for both violent crime and property crime for both the nation and the state. What years had the highest and lowest rates of property crime and violent crime, what were those rates, and what were the general trends you saw? Next, in the final paragraph, give some hypotheses (proposed explanations based on available information) for why crime rates might have varied in this way over time, based on your reading.

Grading Rubric
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