Violent crimes rate scaled down in US: FBI

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:13:53 GMT

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=114317&sectionid=3510203

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has announced that it has tracked a decline in the rate of violent crimes, including murder and robbery, across the US in the first half of 2009.

Despite earlier anticipations suggesting a possible rise in crimes due to economic hardship, the FBI said on Monday that murder and manslaughter saw a significant 10 percent decline in the first half of the year, the Associated Press reported.

In general, violent crimes plummeted by 4.4 percent and property crimes fell by 6.1 percent, the FBI revealed.

Crime rates in the US have not been this low since the 1960's, and are nowhere near the peak reached in the early 1990's.

However, in some cities which suffered more economic hardship, like Baltimore and Detroit, the murder rate climbed.

Detroit, the US automakers' hub, is hit hard by the industry's woes. In the Big Three's hometown, there were 163 counts of murder reported in the first six months of 2009 compared with 146 during the same period in 2008.

The FBI figures also showed car thefts dropped remarkably, plummeting around 19 percent and continuing a sharp downward trend.

The FBI relied on data supplied by more than 11,700 police and law enforcement agencies to prepare the figures.