Crime Statistics Reported: Murder Down, Rape Up

Throughout the United States, the murder rate dropped for the first time in 5 years as reported in todays Washington Post. In 2004, there were 16,137 murders committed, about 350 less than reported in 2003. The instances of rape increased from 2003 to 2004 by .8 percent. This represents an increase of 750 more rapes to a total of 94,635.

Violent crime, which includes aggravated assault and robberies,  decreased by 1.2 percent, and property crimes decreased 1.1 percent compared to the previous year.

The sad part of this is that crime is at a 30 year low. Reading and watching the individual stories of these horrific instances are sobering, but overall we are safer in the United States since the early 1970’s.

Here are the rankings of the 10 biggest cities in the US for violent crime, (via CNN)

• 1) San Diego — 524 violent crimes per 100,000 and a total of 6,774
• 2) San Antonio — 654 –Total 7,846
• 3) Phoenix — 676 — Total 9,465
• 4) New York — 687 — Total 55,688
• 5) Los Angeles — 1,126 — Total 42,786
• 6) Houston — 1,173 — Total 23,427
• 7) Chicago — 1,210* — Total 35,106
• 8) San Jose –1,347 — Total 16,165
• 9) Philadelphia — 1,393 — Total 20,902
• 10) Detroit — 1,657 — Total 15,913

For those interested, here is the full report as issued by the FBI. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/documents/CIUS2004.pdf