FBI: U.S. Crime Levels Fell in 2011; South Witnesses Large Drop

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspapers

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Crime levels nationwide fell in 2010 from the year before, according to preliminary FBI statistics, which show a 2.8 percent decrease in property crimes and a 5.5 percent drop in the number of reported violent crimes.

Figures in the FBI’s “Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report” revealed a decline in murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault in every region of the U.S. The South saw a 7.5 percent decline in violent crime, the largest drop among all regions, according to the report.

Smaller towns have also noticed a decrease in crime. Murder and non-negligent manslaughter offenses plunged by 25.2 percent in cities with a population under 10,000. But in cities of 250,000 to 499,999 people, offenses increased by 3 percent.

The figures in the report are based on information submitted by 13,007 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. The FBI warned against comparing regions.

“As always, we caution against drawing conclusions from the data in this report by making direct comparisons between cities,” the report stated. “Valid assessments are possible only with careful study and analysis of the range of unique conditions affecting each local law enforcement jurisdiction.”

Experts, including James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, said the drop in crime was expected as previous reports revealed a steady decline.

However, Fox cautioned that the decline in crime has been slowing over the last few years.

“Given the fact that we have had some healthy declines in recent years, I fully expected that the improvement would slow. There is only so much air you can squeeze out of a balloon.” James Alan Fox, told The New York Times.

Other experts said they were surprised by the decrease in crime at a time when the nation struggles to recover from a recession.

“Striking,” Alfred Blumstein, a professor and a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University told The New York Times, “at a time when everyone anticipated it could be going up because of the recession.”