According to the 1997 National Crime Victimization Survey, U.S. residents age 12 or older experienced approximately 34.8 million crimes (25.8 million were property crimes and 8.6 million were crimes of violence), despite the fact that property and violent crimes rates were the lowest recorded since the survey's inception in 1973; a downward trend that began in 1994-95. 

Overall, 16 percent of convicted jail inmates said they had committed their offenses to get money for drugs. An estimated 58 percent of federal inmates and 21 percent of state inmates were serving a sentence for a drug offense in 1991.

At the end of 1996, 5.5 million people were on probation, in jail or on parole. If recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 of every 20 persons (5.1 percent) will serve time in a prison during their lifetime.

Based on current rates of first incarceration, an estimated 28 percent of black males will enter state or federal prison during their lifetime, compared to 15 percent of Hispanic males and 4.4 percent of white males.

Of the 108,580 persons released from prisons in 11 states in 1983, an estimated 62.5 percent were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within three years, 46.8 percent were reconvicted, and 41.4 percent returned to prison or jail.

(Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics)