The FBI Uniform Crime Report on Violent Crime for 2010 is available.
"FBI: violent crime down by 6 percent last year," is the FBI filing by Pete Yost.
Violent crime dropped 6 percent in 2010, marking the fourth straight year of year-to-year declines, while property crime was down for the eighth straight year, falling 2.7 percent, the FBI reported Monday.
Nationwide, there were an estimated 1.2 million violent crimes in 2010 and an estimated 9 million property crimes.
An aging population and continued high rates of imprisonment for criminals are helping to drive down crime rates, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University.
CNN posts, "FBI: 2010 sees further decline in violent crime," It's by Terry Frieden.
Violent crime in the United States declined 6.5% last year, according to statistics the FBI released Monday.
The 2010 figures, based on reports from thousands of police agencies from coast to coast, reflect a continuing decline in violence over the last several years despite difficult economic conditions.
The figures released the previous year showed a drop of 5.3% in total violent crime from 2009. Not since 2006, when crime was up 1.9%, has there been a brake on the decline in violence. From 1997 to 2006, violent crime dropped a total of 13%.
This past year the closely watched murder rate dropped 4.8%. Aggravated assaults were down 4.7%, rape declined 5.5% and robbery dropped 10.5%.
"Violent US crime falls for 4th year in a row: FBI," at AFP.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the new figures showed that federal law enforcement agencies had made progress on the crime fighting priorities of President Barack Obama's administration.
"We've targeted gang leadership in communities from Florida to New York, and from Tennessee to North Carolina," he said in a statement. "We've renewed our commitment to fighting organized crime, whether it is traditional La Cosa Nostra or Mexican drug cartels."
But the report also shows that last year's drop in violent crime is part of a long-term trend with the number of such cases falling each year since 2006.
"When considering 5- and 10-year trends, the 2010 estimated violent crime total was 13.2 percent below the 2006 level and 13.4 percent below the 2001 level," the report said.
There were an estimated 1,246,248 violent crimes nationwide last year, down 6.0 percent from 2009, according to the FBI figures.
The violent crime rate for 2010 was 403.6 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants, a 6.5 percent decrease from the 2009 rate. The property crime rate was 2,941.9 offenses per 100,000 persons, down 3.3 percent from 2009.
And:
Aggravated assault accounted for 62.5 percent of violent crimes reported to authorities, followed by robberies at 29.5 percent. Six percent of the violent crimes reported were rapes, and 1.2 percent murders.
Firearms were used in more than two-thirds murders committed, more than 40 percent of robbers, and one in five assaults, the report said.
Related posts are in the crime rates index.
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