2008: Crime down in the US

[Tender Branson]

WASHINGTON — Violent crime including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault fell in the United States last year compared with 2007, an FBI report showed Monday.

But even though violent crime was down across the board by 1.9 percent, 16,272 people were murdered -- around 45 every day of 2008 -- and 89,000 women were raped, the "Crime in the United States" report showed.

More than 834,000 people, or 2.5 percent fewer than in 2007, fell victim last year to aggravated assault, the most common form of violent crime in the United States, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation defines as an attack usually involving a weapon and intended to inflict severe injury or bodily harm.

Just over half as many, 441,885, were robbed last year, down 0.7 percent from 2007.

The number of women who were forcibly raped was down from more than 90,000 in 2007 to 89,000, a 20-year low for the offense, the report, which does not seek to analyze the data, said.

Sexual attacks on males are counted as aggravated assaults or sex offenses, and are not included in the statistics for rape.

The weapon of choice was the firearm. More than two-thirds of all murders committed in the United States, 43.5 percent of robberies and 21.4 percent of aggravated assaults involved a firearm.

Property crimes also declined in 2008, but only because car thefts dropped sharply, from just under 1.1 million in 2007 to around 957,000 last year, or a decline of 12.7 percent.

The other two property thefts which the report looked at, burglary and larceny, were both up.

Larceny, or the theft without force, violence or fraud of property such as a bicycle or vehicle parts, was up 0.3 percent last year, while burglary rose two percent.

Last year, around 39 percent of US law enforcement agencies submitted crime data for the report, which is put together to allow "local agencies to look at the types of crimes in their area and what they need to do to address those crimes," FBI spokesman Phil Carter told AFP.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i8pqDAQKvLMEE4NQ99W6E7_TQe5g

[Tender Branson]

Here's my chart of homicide rates:

[opebo]

What's the orange and blue for?

Anyway, surprising to say the least - you'd think that during a recession, crime would spike just a little.  Not surprising at all though to see that the states with the highest crime levels have high populations of blacks and Hispanics, while the states with the lowest crime rates have also the lowest populations of those groups.

Of course - evidence of the violence perpetrated by those with power upon these minority groups.

[Tender Branson]

What's the orange and blue for?

The orange is for states who have executed someone in the past 10 years and the blue is for states who haven't.