Criminal Justice
Arrests
Arrests are not convictions. Individuals are cited or taken into custody by law enforcement officers when the latter believe they have “probable cause” to believe that a crime has been committed and that the person is guilty of the crime. “Probable cause” is a weaker standard of proof than that of guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt,” which is required for conviction by a judge or jury. Many arrests are later dismissed; many suspects whose cases are prosecuted are found not guilty. Nor can the number of arrests be directly linked to the number of crimes. Sometimes several individuals are arrested in connection with a single crime, or one individual is charged with several crimes.
The numbers in this section are taken from Crime in Arizona, published annually by the Arizona Department of Public Safety based on reports from Arizona law enforcement agencies. These tallies include arrests for only the eight most serious violations of state laws (sometimes called “Part 1 crimes”) as defined by the FBI, and do not include arrests by federal or tribal officials.
