FBI’s 2021 crime data gap will make it less difficult to analyze crime trends

The FBI released its 2021 Crime in the Nation Report, which is usually viewed as the most comprehensive look at the rise and fall of crime in the United States. What Happened: A change in the FBI's rules on reporting crimes in 2021 led to the participation plummeting, which is voluntary but expected.

Weihua Li, a data reporter for The Marshall Project, told NPR that the FBI's data gap will make it harder to analyze crime trends and fact-check claims that politicians tend to fling at each other.

One thing is clear: Cannabis Busts Still Favorite Pastime Of Nation Cops

Busting people for cannabis crimes is one of the police departments' favorite pastimes, despite the FBI's incomplete data.

According to the National Incident-Based Reporting System, the FBI reported 885,509 crimes in 2021 involving the seizure of a controlled substance. Forty-five percent of the 2021 drug seizure offenses involved the confiscation of either cannabis or hashish. It remains unclear how many people were arrested in 2021 for pot-related violations despite previous year s reports. For the first time in over 50 years, national estimates are not publicly available from the FBI.

More than 28 million cannabis arrests have been made since 1965, according to annual arrest statistics from the NORML. The annual marijuana-related arrests peaked at over 800,000 in 2008, before declining over the past decade.

At a time when voters and their elected officials are reviewing state and federal marijuana policies, it is inconceivable that government agencies are unable to produce any explicit data on the estimated costs and scope of marijuana prohibition in America, said NORML s deputy director Paul Armentano.

Despite the fact that a majority of voters don't believe that the adult-use of marijuana should be a crime, it remains clear from the limited data available that marijuana seizures and prosecutions are the primary driver of drug war enforcement in the United States and that hundreds of thousands of Americans are still being arrested annually for violations of the law, despite the fact that a majority of voters don't believe that the adult-use of marijuana should be a crime, Armentano said.