WASHINGTON – The FBI says violent crime in the United States is on the downswing.
Data released Monday show violent crime dipped slightly nationwide in 2007. That ended two years of increases in murders, robberies, and other kinds of the worst crime in U.S. cities.
Click here to read the full report at the FBI.
An estimated 1.4 million violent crimes were reported across the U.S. last year — a 0.7 percent drop from 2006.
The number of burglaries, car thefts, arsons and other property crimes also dropped by 1.4 percent. That marked the fifth year of property crime decreases, the FBI said.
Mayors have pleaded for years for more federal funding to combat violent crime. The crime rate began to rise after historic lows over the last decade, beginning during the Clinton administration and continuing in President George W. Bush's first years in the White House.
Monday's results confirm what the FBI predicted earlier this year: that increases in violence nationwide have waned, even if not as much as originally thought. Preliminary data released in January showed a 1.8 percent drop in violent crime for the first six months of 2007 — a decrease more than twice as large as the full year's results.
The new data show that police nationwide made 14 million arrests in 2007, not counting traffic offenses.
From murders to carjackings, crime dropped in every category compared to last year, the FBI reported. Murders decreased by 0.6 percent, for example, as did larcenies and thefts. Rapes dropped by 2.5 percent to the lowest levels since 2000.
Except for arsons, property crime accounted for $17.6 billion in losses to victims, the data show. Police reported an estimated 9.8 million property crimes in 2007.
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