Offense Category
Motor Vehicle Offenses
What is it?
Crimes committed with a vehicle commonly used for commercial or personal transportation purposes.
What does our data show?
Motor vehicle offenses include driving under the influence, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, and driving on a suspended or revoked license. The most frequent top charge — more than 50% of the total — was driving under the influence. DUI cases more than doubled from 2005 to 2006, before declining over the next decade. Nearly 30% of motor vehicle offense cases were for driving on a suspended or revoked license.
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.