Publication Date: 2019

Author: Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Caitlin Saladino, William E. Brown

Abstract: Criminal arrests in Southern Nevada are on a downward trend. Despite a record-setting influx in population across the Las Vegas Valley and the surrounding metro area, officers in each of Clark County’s police jurisdictions arrest fewer people every year. The present study utilizes the Arrest Trends Tool created by the Vera Institute of Justice and the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program to measure the number of arrests made over ten years for a variety of illegal activities, including drug abuse, violence and murder, property crimes, sex crimes, alcohol-related crimes, theft, white collar crimes, and other offenses. This data set summarizes arrest trends from 2006 to 2016—before, during, and after the Great Recession—to examine the implications of static versus changing crime rates. In keeping with the current findings regarding policing and prisons in the U.S., this study is meant to gauge the contingent levels of convictions and incarcerations in Nevada's most populous metro.