2002 Crime Rate Lowest Since Records Kept

[goobergunch]

By CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Violent and property crimes dipped in 2002 to their lowest levels since records started being compiled 30 years ago, and have dropped more than 50 percent in the last decade, the Justice Department reported Sunday.

The annual survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics identified about 23 million crime victims last year, down slightly from the year before and far below the 44 million recorded when studies began in 1973.

The rate of violent crimes - rapes, robberies and assaults - was about 23 victims for every 1,000 U.S. residents 12 or older last year. That compares with 25 victims per 1,000 in 2001 and 50 in 1993.

For property crimes such as burglary and car theft, the rate was 159 crimes per 1,000 last year, down from 167 the previous year and 319 in 1993.

more...http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CRIME_RATE?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

However, this doesn't include murder.

[indepat]

1. 50 violet crimes in 1993 per 1,000 and 319 property crimes in 1993

per 1,000 U.S. residents, this after twelve years of conservative governance, compassionate conservatism during the last four of those years. Hopefully the crime rates fell during GWB's second year. Hopefully those reported statistics are not flawed or tweaked to show how tough they are on crime.

[otohara]

2. DOJ Report Ha, ha, ha, - like I'm going to believe

anything those assholes put out. Numbers don't jive with CO...crime was up

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. it is an annomoly...911 factor...just like bush support

[Cheswick2.0]

4. nah, they just changed the way they are counting

!

[DuctapeFatwa]

5. Ethical and Public Health Implications of Under-counting Violent Crime

This article is from 4 yrs ago, but it has some useful background information. While just not reporting most violent crimes is popular with politicians and chambers of commerce, and is very effective in terms of attracting business and investment, and can mean some significant savings for business and even consumer insurance premiums, like everything else, there are trade-offs

http://www.law.uh.edu/healthlawperspectives/Bioethics/981125Crime.html

[stlsaxman]

6. Right- because White Collar Corporate Crime is skyrocketing! nt

[snippy]

7. This is a complete and total Bushshit lie.

The numbers in the press release relied upon in this article come from a Justice Department survey of "76,050 U.S. residents 12 or above." According to the DOJ, this survey:

"is the Nation's primary source of information on criminal victimization. Each year, data are obtained from a nationally representative sample of 42,000 households comprising nearly 76,000 persons on the frequency, characteristics and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States. The survey enables BJS to estimate the likelihood of victimization by rape, sexual assault, robbery, assault, theft, household burglary, and motor vehicle theft for the population as a whole as well as for segments of the population such as women, the elderly, members of various racial groups, city dwellers, or other groups."

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict.htm#ncvs

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, which are based on actual crimes actually reported to actual police departments nationwide, crime dropped very slightly (0.2%) in 2002 from the 2001 numbers.

http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel03/12month2002.htm

The 2001 numbers showed an increase of 2.1% from 2000 and do not include the crimes of 9/11. The 2001 increase was the first increase since 1991.

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_01/01crime2.pdf