You can get an arrest warrant issued on you for a whole lot of stuff, a lot of which has absolutely nothing to do with being a violent criminal or even a criminal. I bet a lot of those warrants are for "failure to appear" on things like traffic summonses, or even parking tickets. This is especially common among poorer people who tend to move around a lot, and where things like legal notices don't tend to follow frequent changes of address.
I knew a guy who got one issued on him for failing to pay a $35-ish ticket for expired tags while driving his brother's car. His brother had promised to pay the ticket since it was his brother's car and, well, you know how that works. Two years later $FRIEND was in the back of a patrol car in handcuffs over that unpaid $35 ticket.