Offense Category
Other Offenses
What is it?
A catchall category for cases that don’t fit into the other categories, from violating an order of protection to unlawful use of body armor.
What does our data show?
This category includes felony and misdemeanor cases in which the top charge does not fall into the Illinois State Police’s categorized charges or cases in which we were unable to discern which charge the court data referred to.
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.