Arrests in the US by Year and Type of Offense
The huge drop in drug arrests since 2019 reflects changes in marijuana laws at the state-level, but we still arrest more people for drugs than we do for property or violent crimes.
A graph of arrests in the United States since 1980 by three categories: drugs, property crime, and violent crime. Violent crime arrests hover around a half million per year. Drug crime arrests were close to violent crime arrests in 1980, while property crime arrests were three times higher. Drug arrests steadily climbed and exceeded property crime arrests in 2003-2008 and again in 2014-present. In 2018 and 2019, drug arrests exceeded property crime arrests by nearly half million in both years.
