A Steep Decline For Crime In 1996, Violent Crime In United States Dropped 7 Percent, Murders 11 Percent
Violent crime in the United States dropped by 7 percent in 1996, the fifth straight annual decline and the largest on record since the government began keeping track 35 years ago, the FBI said Sunday.
The reduction in the number of crimes reported to police across the nation was led by a record 11 percent drop in the number of murders.
The preliminary FBI statistics seem to confirm widely reported evidence of a dramatic reversal in the nation’s long-term trends in crime. The turnaround has been most striking in major cities, where residents once assumed that crime would inevitably get worse.
Instead, safer streets are beginning to lead to a higher quality of life in the nation’s urban centers, and a debate has begun among experts in an effort to identify the factors contributing to the renaissance.
Hailing the new statistics, President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno attributed the declines in part to the administration’s anti-crime policies.
“The continued downward trend over the past four years is further evidence that we are on the right track with increased community policing, tougher penalties and greater juvenile crime prevention,” Clinton said.
“President Clinton’s plan to combat crime is working,” said Reno. “Penalties are tougher, tens of thousands of illegal gun sales have been thwarted, more than 57,000 new police have been paid for, and we are helping more young people stay on the right path.”
The attorney general also used the occasion to press Congress to pass Clinton’s youth crime bill, which would provide more prosecutors and stiffer penalties for gang-related violence, make it tougher for teenagers to get guns, and launch new prevention programs.
Police officials in some cities have cited new, get-tough law enforcement policies as contributing factors in the declining rates of violent crime. Other experts have noted an increased appreciation among big-city officials that “zero tolerance” for minor infractions - graffiti, vandalism, loud music, petty brawls - tends to keep neighborhoods more vibrant and reduces the sense of fear and isolation that breeds serious crime.
Yet the breadth of the downward trend in the FBI statistics suggests that deeper social and demographic forces may be at work. The decline seems to coincide with the aging of the huge baby boom generation, the largest living population cohort. Most crimes are committed by young people, and now that baby boomers are moving firmly into middle age, they are well beyond their most crime-prone years.
Such a generational shift may help explain why the FBI reported that the violent crimes of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault were down in cities, suburbs and rural areas alike.
Across the country, every major category of violent crime posted a significant decline. The number of rapes dropped by 3 percent, robberies by 8 percent and aggravated assault 6 percent.
Property crimes - burglary, larceny and auto theft - also fell last year. The total rate for all serious crimes declined by 3 percent, the largest annual decrease since 1982.
The FBI noted that the number of murders reported to police fell in each of the nation’s three largest cities. The number of murders in Los Angeles fell from 849 in 1995 to 709 last year, the number of murders in New York fell from 1,177 in 1995 to 986, while in Chicago, murders dropped from 824 to 789.
One of the most dramatic statistical declines came in Oklahoma City, where the number of murders reported fell from 227 in 1995 to 67 last year. The figures for 1995 were skewed, however, by the 168 people killed in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
The statistics released by the FBI on Sunday are preliminary figures based on crimes reported to 16,000 police departments nationwide. The final tallies for 1996 will be released in the fall, an FBI spokesman said.
xxxx Subsiding crime wave This city-by-city list shows the crime index total and the number of murders in 1995 and 1996 as reported by the FBI. The index is the sum of murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies-thefts and auto thefts reported to police. The FBI’s 1996 crime data are preliminary and not complete. Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky and Montana either have submitted no data for 1996 or data only for cities of more than 100,000 population.
Regional cities
City Year Index Mrdrs Spokane 1995 16,484 23 1996 16,286 15 Seattle 1995 55,507 41 1996 55,636 37 Portland 1995 55,340 43 1996 50,306 51 Boise 1995 8,873 3 1996 8,693 1 Tacoma 1995 21,766 28 1996 20,143 20
Other major cities
City Year Index Mrdrs Atlanta 1995 69,011 184 1996 70,536 196 Boston 1995 52,278 96 1996 44,711 59 Chicago 1995 NA 824 1996 NA 789 Dallas 1995 98,264 276 1996 100,401 217 Denver 1995 34,769 81 1996 34,314 64 Detroit 1995 119,065 475 1996 53,961 428 Las Vegas 1995 60,178 118 1996 56,943 161 Los Angeles 1995 266,204 849 1996 235,258 709 Miami 1995 59,170 110 1996 52,918 124 New York 1995 444,758 1,177 1996 383,342 986 San Francisco 1995 60,474 99 1996 56,593 83 Washington, D.C. 1995 67,402 361 1996 64,557 397