Violent Crime Up, Property Crime Down in 2006, FBI Reports

Violent crime increased 1.3 percent in 2006 when compared with data from 2005. However, property crime decreased 2.9 percent for the same time period, according to the FBI.

Violent crime was up, except in the Northeast. Motor vehicle thefts went down while arson incidents rose across the country.

The FBI collected the national preliminary data from 11,723 law enforcement agencies that submitted at least 6 months of offense data through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program in both 2005 and 2006.

Statistics from the annual report include the following information regarding property crime:

For 2006, property crime decreased 2.9 percent when compared with 2005 data. Motor vehicle theft offenses dropped 4.7 percent and larceny-theft offenses were down 3.5 percent. Burglary offenses increased slightly (0.2 percent).

Property crime decreased in all of the nation’s city population groups, ranging from a 3.4-percent decline in cities with populations of 100,000 to 499,999 persons to a 2.1-percent decrease in cities with 500,000 to 999,999 inhabitants.

Nonmetropolitan and metropolitan counties also had declines in property crime, down 4.2 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively, when 2005 data were compared with 2006 reports.

Motor vehicle theft and larceny-theft decreased in all of the nation’s population groups.

For burglary, nonmetropolitan counties had the greatest decrease (4.6 percent) among the population groups, and cities with 500,000 to 999,999 inhabitants had the greatest increase (3.3 percent).

Three of the four regions saw decreases in reports of property crime from 2005 to 2006. However, property crimes were virtually unchanged (+0.1 percent) in the Midwest.

By offense type, each region experienced declines in the number of larceny-thefts and motor vehicle thefts.

Arson offenses, which are tracked separately from other property crime offenses, increased 1.8 percent from the previous year’s number. All population groups had increases in arson offenses except for cities with populations of 250,000 to 499,999 inhabitants (-3.4 percent) and those cities with 100,000 to 249,999 persons (-0.8 percent).

Violent crime
Statistics from the annual report include the following information regarding violent crime:

Three of the nation’s four geographic regions had increases in violent crimes from 2005 to 2006. The Northeast was the exception as the number of violent crimes remained virtually unchanged (-0.1 percent) from the previous year.

By violent crime category, robbery offenses increased 6.0 percent and murder and nonnegligent manslaughter increased 0.3 percent. The number of forcible rapes decreased 1.9 percent, and aggravated assaults were down 0.7 percent.

By city population group, violent crime offenses increased when compared with data from the previous year. Increases in violent crime were the greatest (3.2 percent) in cities with populations of 250,000 to 499,999 inhabitants and in those cities with 25,000 to 49,999 people.

The largest increase in murder offenses occurred in cities with populations of 1,000,000 or more, 6.7 percent. In contrast, murders decreased 11.9 percent in nonmetropolitan counties.

Forcible rape offenses decreased in all but two population groups. These offenses increased 2.2 percent in cities with 50,000 to 99,999 persons and 1.0 percent in cities with 10,000 to 24,999 inhabitants.

Robbery offenses increased in each population group except nonmetropolitan counties, where these offenses were down 0.8 percent.

Aggravated assault offenses decreased 2.3 percent in cities with 500,000 to 999,999 inhabitants, the greatest decrease among the city population groups. These offenses declined 5.4 percent in the nonmetropolitan counties.

Source: FBI