Thaindian News

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) — Violent crime in the U.S. decreased by more than five percent in 2009, compared to a year earlier, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Monday.

The figures were released in the FBI’s Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report, which compiled data from 13,237 law enforcement agencies that submitted six to twelve months of data in both 2008 and 2009.

Overall, the rate of violent crime offenses dropped by 5.5 percent while property crime declined by 4.9 percent. Violent crimes include murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. All of those declined in 2009.

Robberies had the biggest drop in 2009, which decreased by 8.1 percent. The murder rate dropped by 7.2 percent, aggravated assault by 4.2 percent, and forcible rape by 3.1 percent.

Violent crime declined 4.0 percent in the nation’s metropolitan counties and 3.0 percent in non-metropolitan counties.

Metropolitan counties reported a 3.7 percent decline in the number of rapes, but the number of rapes reported in non-metropolitan counties rose slightly, by 0.3 percent.

Per regions, violent crime decreased 6.6 percent in the South, 5.6 percent in the West, 4.6 percent in the Midwest, and 3.5 percent in the Northeast.

Further, all property crime offenses decreased. Motor vehicle theft showed the largest drop in volume at 17.2 percent, larceny-thefts declined 4.2 percent, and burglaries decreased 1.7 percent.

Arson offenses, which are tracked separately from other property crimes, declined 10.4 percent nationwide.