US violent crime lowest for almost 30 years
Crimes of violence except murder in the US fell by 9% last year, sending the crime rate to its lowest level since it was first tracked in 1973, the government reported.
The decline was due primarily to a record low number of reported assaults, the most common form of violent crime.
The drop is detailed in the 2001 National Crime Victimisation Survey, which is based on interviews with victims and thus does not include murder.
Preliminary figures from another FBI report – gleaned from more than 17,000 city, county and state law enforcement agencies and released in June – reflected an increase in murders of 3.1% in 2001.
Experts discussing the new report on violent crime said the decrease, part of a decade-long trend, is the result primarily of the strong economy in the 1990s and the prevalence of tougher sentencing laws.
Since 1993, the violent crime rate has decreased by almost 50%.
The new report says that between 2000 and 2001, the number of people who reported they were victims of violent crime fell from about 28 per 1,000 to about 25 per 1,000, a 10% drop. The number of people reporting violent crimes fell from 6,323,000 in 2000 to 5,744,000 in 2001.
Only about half of the violent crimes reported in the survey were reported to police.
The report showed a 10% decrease in the violent crime rate for whites. It also included an 11.6% decrease for blacks and a 3.9% increase for Hispanics, but the report gave neither of those figures the highest grade of confidence because of analytical formulas that suggest they could be flawed.
Assault was down 10%, but victim reports reflected a 13% increase in injuries.
The rate at which criminals used guns to accomplish their crimes held steady, around 26%.
Rape fell 8%, and sexual assaults – which include verbal threats and fondling - fell 20%. Around half the women who reported rapes said the perpetrator was a friend or acquaintance. The rate at which women reported rape to the police fell 19% in 2001.
The overall property crime rate fell 6% between 2000 and 2001. The car theft rate was up 7%, reflecting a jump from 937,000 car thefts in 2000 to 1,009,000 in 2001.
