Violent Crime Up in 2006

Preliminary data released by the FBI indicate that violent crime for January through June 2006 was up 3.7 percent when compared to its reported level for the first half of 2005. However, property crime for the same time period was down 2.6 percent.

The FBI released these findings in its Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime report, January through June, 2006.

Statistics from the report include the following:

• In the violent crime category, the number of robbery offenses nationwide increased 9.7 percent, murder offenses increased 1.4 percent, and aggravated assault offenses increased 1.2 percent. Forcible rape offenses decreased less than 0.1 percent.

• The volume of reported robbery offenses for the first six months of 2006 was up in all of the Nation's city population groupings when compared to the 2005 reported data. The largest increase, 12.8 percent, occurred in cities with populations of 10,000 to 24,999.

• Reported robbery offenses also increased in the Nation's metropolitan counties, up 8.4 percent.

• Cities with populations of 500,000 to 999,999 had the most marked increase in reported murder offenses, up 8.4 percent.

• In the metropolitan counties, reported murder offenses were up 3.1 percent.

• Overall, violent crime increased in all four of the Nation's regions during the reporting period.

• In the property crime category, the number of larceny-theft offenses decreased 3.8 percent nationwide for the six-month period. Reported motor vehicle theft offenses declined 2.3 percent. Only burglary offenses showed an increase, up 1.2 percent from the 2005 level.

• Though reported property crime offenses as a whole were down in all of the Nation's population groups, the number of reported burglary offenses was up in all of the population groups with the exceptions of cities with 1 million or more inhabitants, down 1.5 percent, and the Nation's nonmetropolitan counties, down 3.7 percent.

• Reported property crimes were down in three of the four regions. The Midwest was the only region to show a cumulative increase in the volume of reported property crimes, up 1.7 percent overall with increases of 5.8 percent for burglary, 0.7 percent for larceny-theft, and 0.3 percent for motor vehicle theft.

• Arson offenses, which are tracked separately from other property crime offenses, increased 6.8 percent nationwide. Increases in reported arson offenses ranged from 20.0 percent in both cities with 50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants and those with under 10,000 population to 3.1 percent in the country's metropolitan counties.

The data are based on the submissions of 11,535 law enforcement agencies that submitted three to six comparable months of data to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for January through June of both 2005 and 2006.

The complete Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report is available on the FBI's Web site