Violent Crime Up in First Half of ’06
Violent crime for the first 6 months of 2006 was up 3.7% when compared to the reported level for the first half of 2005. However, property crime for the same time period was down 2.6%.
The FBI released the findings Monday in its Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January–June, 2006. The data are based on the submissions of 11,535 law enforcement agencies that submitted 3 to 6 comparable months of data to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for January through June of both 2005 and 2006.
Statistics from the report include the following:
• In the violent crime category, the number of robbery offenses nationwide increased 9.7%, murder offenses increased 1.4%, and aggravated assault offenses increased 1.2%. Forcible rape offenses decreased less than 0.1%.
• The volume of reported robbery offenses for the first 6 months of 2006 was up in all of the Nation’s city population groupings when compared to the 2005 reported data. The largest increase, 12.8%, occurred in cities with populations of 10,000 to 24,999.
• Reported robbery offenses also increased in the Nation’s metropolitan counties, up 8.4%.
• Cities with populations of 500,000 to 999,999 had the most marked increase in reported murder offenses, up 8.4%.
• In the metropolitan counties, reported murder offenses were up 3.1%.
• Overall, violent crime increased in all four of the Nation’s regions during the reporting period.
• In the property crime category, the number of larceny-theft offenses decreased 3.8% nationwide for the 6-month period. Reported motor vehicle theft offenses declined 2.3%. Only burglary offenses showed an increase, up 1.2% from the 2005 level.
• Though reported property crime offenses as a whole were down in all of the Nation’s population groups, the number of reported burglary offenses was up in all of the population groups with the exceptions of cities with 1 million or more inhabitants, down 1.5%, and the Nation’s nonmetropolitan counties, down 3.7%.
• Reported property crimes were down in three of the four regions. The Midwest was the only region to show a cumulative increase in the volume of reported property crimes, up 1.7% overall with increases of 5.8% for burglary, 0.7% for larceny-theft, and 0.3% for motor vehicle theft.
• Arson offenses, which are tracked separately from other property crime offenses, increased 6.8% nationwide. Increases in reported arson offenses ranged from 20.0% in both cities with 50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants and those with under 10,000 population to 3.1% in the country’s metropolitan counties.
