U.S. Crime Numbers on Decline
By CASSANDRA BURRELL - AP
WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans were victims of about 8.1 million violent crimes
last year, a 7 percent drop from 1997 and the lowest number reported since the Justice
Department began tracking the figure in 1973.
A report released Sunday called the one-year drop ``marginally significant,''
driven by a small but significant decline in aggravated assault rates.
``From 1997 to 1998, no significant changes in rates of rape or sexual assault,
robbery or simple assault occurred,'' said this year's National Crime Victimization
Survey. There were slight declines in robbery and simple assault, but rape and sexual
assault actually rose slightly, from 311,000 in 1997 to 333,000 in 1998. Rape and
sexual assault were the only two crimes to show an increase during the period.
The general 1998 decline continued a downward trend that began in 1994, the
survey said.
Attorney General Janet Reno said there is no one reason for the drop. But she
gave Clinton administration policies credit for combining the effects of several
strategies.
``It's because of more police officers on the streets, tougher sentences, more
prosecutions, better prevention programs, a healthy economy and a new approach to crime
fighting that involves a closer working relationship between communities and federal,
state and local law enforcement,'' Reno said.
Republicans have said they are relieved over the decline but warn that crime
rates remain unacceptably high. They also have pointed to passage of anti-crime
legislation since the GOP took majority control of Congress in 1995.
Sunday's report said that from 1993 to 1998, rates of violent crime, rape or
sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault and simple assault, fell 27 percent, from 50
per 1,000 Americans age 12 or older to 37 per 1,000.
``Every major type of crime measured, rape or sexual assault, robbery,
aggravated assault, simple assault, burglary, theft and motor vehicle theft decreased
significantly between 1993 and 1998,'' the study said.
The annual survey of American households excludes killings, because it asks
individuals about their own experiences. But the report said preliminary figures
released separately by the FBI have shown that the number of murders dropped about 8
percent between 1997 and 1998.
Each year the victimization survey analyzes data on nonfatal violent crimes
reported to police and those not reported to police. ``In 1998 approximately 43,000
households and 80,000 people age 12 or older were interviewed,'' the report said.
According to the report, attackers used a weapon in about a fourth of violent
offenses in 1998. ``About 40 percent of robbery victims faced a weapon, as did 9 percent
of rape or sexual assault victims,'' the Justice Department said in a written
statement. `Eight percent of all violent victimizations were committed by offenders
armed with a firearm.''
About half of all victims of violent crimes knew their assailants, Justice
officials said. More than 70 percent of rape and sexual assault victims knew their
attackers, and 50 percent of aggravated assault victims did.
``Almost half of all violent victimizations and about one-third of all property
crimes were reported to police each year from 1993 to 1998,'' the statement said.
``Females and blacks were more likely to report violent crimes than males and whites.''
The survey also revealed a 12 percent drop in property crimes, burglary, motor
vehicle theft and household theft last year and a 32 percent drop since 1993. Personal
thefts, which include pocket picking and purse snatching, remained unchanged.
Motor vehicle thefts fell 22 percent from 1997 to 1998 because of a 20 percent
drop in ``completed motor vehicle theft'' and a 27 percent decline in attempted vehicle
theft. Violent crimes against blacks fell from 49 victimizations per 1,000 people to
42 per 1,000, the report said. Rates for Hispanics fell from 43 per 1,000 to 33 per 1,000.
Blacks still had a marginally higher overall violent crime victimization rate
than whites and significantly higher rates than people of other races last year.
Blacks and whites did not differ significantly in the rates of victimization by
robbery, simple assault, rape and sexual assault, however.
