2/28/2014

Violent Crimes Declined Across Country in First Six Months of 2013, F.B.I. Says - NYTimes.com

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Violent Crimes Declined Across Country in First Six Months of 2013, F.B.I. Says
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT FEB. 18, 2014

WASHINGTON The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday that violent crimes, including murders, fell by 5.4 percent in the first six months of 2013 compared with the same period in 2012, continuing a long reduction in violent crime across the country. The only category where the number increased was rape, but that number is slightly misleading because the 2013 figure is based on a broader definition of the crime adopted by the Justice Department. In 2013, 14,400 rapes were reported, compared with 13,242 in 2012. Property crimes also fell significantly, and of all the crimes the F.B.I. tracks both violent offenses and nonviolent ones the greatest drop-off, by percentage, was in arsons, which fell by 15.6 percent. We have had almost 25 years of a decline in crime, but on a year-toyear basis its hard to come up with a story, John Roman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institutes Justice Policy Center, said, referring to efforts to pinpoint reasons for the lower numbers. But over all, this shows how weve gotten smarter on policing, immigration and gentrification in the cities and elsewhere. Small cities and rural areas saw a larger reduction in violent crime than metropolitan areas, and, by region, crime fell the most in the Midwest.

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Violent Crimes Declined Across Country in First Six Months of 2013, F.B.I. Says - NYTimes.com

In all, murders fell by 6.9 percent, aggravated assaults by 6.6 percent and robberies by 1.8 percent, the bureau said. The numbers are based on reports from 12,723 law enforcement agencies that provided information to the bureaus Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, W.Va. According to the bureau, the number of violent crimes fell by 9.2 percent in cities with fewer than 10,000 people, compared with 3.6 percent for metropolitan counties. In the Midwest, violent crimes fell by 7.4 percent, in the South by 5.9, in the Northeast by 4.3 percent and in the West by 3.7 percent. Among property crimes, burglary decreased by 8.1 percent, larceny theft by 4.7 percent and motor vehicle theft by 3.2 percent. Arsons fell by 20.4 percent in nonmetropolitan counties and 15.8 percent in metropolitan counties. The decrease in property crimes over all was 12 percent in nonmetropolitan counties and 7.4 percent in metropolitan counties, and the smallest drop-off in property crime occurred in the West, where it fell by 0.3 percent. In compiling the rape numbers, the bureau used a new definition of rape that removes the word forcible and now includes penetration, no matter how slight of any orifice without the consent of the victim, either men or women. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in 2012 that changes were long overdue. This new, more inclusive definition will provide us with a more accurate understanding of the scope and volume of these crimes, he said. The new definition, federal authorities said, reflected the majority of state rape statutes.
A version of this article appears in print on February 19, 2014, on page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Violent Crimes Declined Across Country in First Six Months of 2013, F.B.I. Says.

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Violent Crimes Declined Across Country in First Six Months of 2013, F.B.I. Says - NYTimes.com

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