The preliminary UCR for 2009 shows a decrease in all types of violent crime. This raises some interesting questions. Unemployment is high and new graduates are facing a dearth of job openings. So one wonders about the relationship of employment and crime.
Community policing is now widespread in the US; could this be a factor in the decrease? Does more unemployment mean more eyes are on the look-out, ready to intervene if they see situations that could escalate into violence?
There is no lessening of gang membership so how does gang membership relate to violent crime? The data raises more questions than it answers.
Here are some more top line numbers from the report:
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All four categories of violent crime declined overall compared to 2008: robbery, 8.1 percent; murder, 7.2 percent; aggravated assault, 4.2 percent; and forcible rape, 3.1 percent. Violent crime declined 4.0 percent in metropolitan counties and 3.0 percent in nonmetropolitan counties.
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The largest decrease in murders—7.5 percent—was in cities with populations ranging from 500,000 to 999,999. The only increases in murders were found in cities of 25,000 to 49,999 (up 5.3 percent) and nonmetropolitan counties (up 1.8 percent).
- All overall categories of property crime also decreased when compared to 2008. Motor vehicle theft was down 17.2 percent; larceny-theft, 4.2 percent; and burglaries, 1.7 percent. Motor vehicle theft, which experienced the largest decrease in a single property crime category by far, fell significantly in all four regions of the country—down 18.5 percent in the Midwest, down 17.5 percent in both the Northeast and the West, and down 16.3 percent in the South.
- Arson declined across the board, with reported decreases across all population groups and all four regions of the country—11.6 percent in the West, 10.6 percent in the South, 9.2 percent in the Midwest, and 8.6 percent in the Northeast.
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