Serious crime shows eight-year decline, says FBI

May 7, 2000
Web posted at: 9:13 p.m. EDT (0113 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For the eighth consecutive year, serious crime has declined in the U.S., according to the latest FBI figures.

Total incidents of both violent crime and property crime are down 7 percent from 1998.

The number of murders reported in 1999 was down 8 percent from a year earlier. Also down 8 percent were robbery and auto theft.

Rape and aggravated assaults were down 7 percent, larceny- theft was down 6 percent and arson 5 percent. The number of burglaries was down the most, at 11 percent.

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program bases its statistics on voluntarily submitted data from more than 17,000 city, county and state law enforcement agencies.

The newly-released "preliminary" data for 1999 provides figures on incidents of several categories of serious crime in the nation's 225 cities with populations of 100,000 or more.

Total crime was not down in every city. In 36 of the 225 cities listed, the total crime index was up, to varying degrees. Texas appeared to fare worst in 1999, with crime on the increase in 12 of its 26 cities included in the report.

Overall, crime dropped 10 percent in the West, 8 percent in the Midwest, 7 percent in the Northeast and 4 percent in the South.

The figures show total crime increased in 1999 in Albany, New York; Amarillo, Texas; Amherst, New York; Austin, Texas; Beaumont, Texas; Bellevue, Washinton; Boston; Brownsville, Texas; Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina; Columbus, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; Durham, North Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; Glendale, Arizona; Houston, Texas; Huntsville, Alabama; Jersey City, New Jersey; Laredo, Texas; Lexington, Kentucky; Lubbock, Texas; Manchester, New Hampshire; Mesquite, Texas; Montgomery, Alabama; Newport News, Virginia; Orange, California; Pembroke Pines, Florida; Pomona, California; Providence, Rhode Island; Pueblo, Colorado; Rancho Cucamonga, California; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Springfield, Missouri; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Waco, Texas; Wichita Falls, Texas; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The FBI's final report on the 1999 crime rates, which will provide extensive data on the various categories of crimes, victims and offenders, will be published in the fall.

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Federal Bureau of Investigation
   • Uniform Crime Reports (download the report)

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