FBI: Major Crime Up 2 Percent

Las Vegas SUN ^ | 6-23-2002 | AP

[Reagan Man]

WASHINGTON- Major crime increased in the United States last year for the first time in a decade, including a 3.1 percent increase in murders, a law enforcement official said Saturday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity about contents of an annual report to be released Monday by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, said it will show jumps in robberies, burglaries and car thefts.

Overall, major crimes in 2001 were up by 2 percent from 2000, the official said.

Statistics from the report were first reported by The Washington Post, which said it obtained a copy of the document.

The newspaper said the latest release shows crime reports in suburban areas overall were up 2.2 percent.

Regionally, only the Northeast showed a drop in crime, it said, with the largest increase in the West, followed by the South and Midwest.

The more than 3,000 deaths from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were excluded from the FBI report. Citing the report, the Post said if those deaths were counted as homicides, the number of murders would have increased by 26 percent from 2000.

The reversal of nine years of declining crime numbers is certain to generate considerable interest in Congress, as well among the law enforcement community.

Moreover, it comes at a time the FBI is shifting from a focus on traditional crimes in favor of efforts to head off terrorist attacks.

Criminologists have been warning for some time that surges in the numbers of teenagers and released prisoners, along with recent economic declines, threatened a return to rising crime.

The Post said most of the increase in 2001 was driven by jumps in various property crimes - led by car thefts at 6 percent - while the overall number of violent crimes rose by less than 1 percent.

But it said every category except aggravated assault showed an increase, and crime experts said the rises in murders and robberies were particularly alarming because of the severe impact they have on neighborhoods and communities.

Homicides increased sharply in many U.S. cities last year, including a jump of 67 percent in Boston and double-digit percentage spikes in Houston, Atlanta, St. Louis and Phoenix, the newspaper said. Murders also increased at smaller rates in Chicago and Los Angeles but continued to decline in New York City when those slain in the World Trade Center attack were excluded.

[B4Ranch]

There is strong reasons behind not dividing the hispanics into a separate group for criminal statistics. Immigration would come to a screeching halt and the socialist UN supporters cannot have that.

[GailA]

Recidivism rates have also increased since the last study. 1994 recidivism study