Offense Category
Battery
What is it?
Intentionally causing bodily injury or making harmful contact with another individual.
What does our data show?
Domestic battery cases remain the most used within this offense category. But reflecting the steady decrease in overall cases across Cook County, domestic battery cases have decreased by more than 40% between 2000 and 2018. While the number of aggravated domestic battery cases is significantly smaller, cases in which that was the top charge have increased significantly in that time.
Charges
Detailed charts are unavailable for charges with fewer than 750 cases.
- Felony
- Misdemeanor
Race and Gender
This data shows that Black people make up the vast majority of criminal defendants charged in Cook County. Of the more than 3 million criminal cases filed in Cook County between 2000 and 2018, more than 61% were filed against Black people, even though Black people only make up 23% of the county’s population.
Research suggests the disparity has more to do with social inequity than an inherent link between race and criminality. Concentrated poverty in urban areas increases the likelihood of certain violent and property crimes, particularly in under-resourced, racially segregated communities. Black people are the most racially isolated group in Cook County and tend to live in communities where intergenerational poverty and violence, abetted by segregation, disinvestment, and institutionalized racism, have limited opportunities for many.
The disparities in charges also reflect inequities and racial bias in policing. Black people are disproportionately targeted for arrest. These numbers reflect overall trends seen in our era of mass incarceration, driven especially by law enforcement strategies such as Broken Windows policing, stop and frisk, disproportionate stops of Black drivers, and disparities in drug arrests.