Justice department sets record for violent crime, firearms charges

The U.S. Department of Justice charged the largest number of violent crime and firearm defendants in its history in fiscal year 2018.

Citing data from the Executive Office of United States Attorneys (EOUSA), the Justice Department said the number of people criminal felony offenses increased by nearly 15 percent in 2018, from 71,200 FY 2017 to more than 81,800 in FY 2018.

Further, the Justice Department charged the largest number of violent crime defendants since EOUSA started to track this data roughly 25 years ago. More than 16,800 defendants were charged, surpassing last year’s record amount by 15 percent. Also, the Justice Department said 15,300 defendants were charged federal firearms offenses in 2018, 17 percent more than the previous record.

Additionally, 23,400 were charged with felony illegal re-entry, up 38 percent from FY 2017, while about 68,400 were charged with misdemeanor illegal entry. The latter represents an 86 percent increase from the previous year and is 4 percent higher than the previous record of roughly 65,500 defendants set in FY 2013.

The department also charged 23,600 with drug-related offenses, up 6 percent from last year. And, 6,500 people were prosecuted for white-collar crimes, an increase of three percent.

“The Department of Justice is breaking law enforcement records and doing so by significant margins,” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. “When I took office as Attorney General, I ordered federal prosecutors and agents to take illegal guns off of our streets, to prosecute crimes aggressively, to protect our nation’s borders, and to target white-collar fraud. With support from our state and local partners, our federal prosecutors and agents have delivered—and I am grateful to them and the fabulous state and local officers who worked so hard to make these achievements possible. And we are seeing results.”

Sessions said violent crime and homicides dropped in 2017 and will drop again in 2018.