Serious Crimes in U.S. Decline for Third Straight Year

Serious criminal offenses decreased 2% nationwide in 1984--the third straight annual decline--but the violent crime category rose 1% while property crime dropped 2%, according to statistics released Saturday by FBI Director William H. Webster.

“While the incidence of crime in the United States remains at intolerable levels, the law enforcement community can take some degree of pride in the fact that crime has decreased for three consecutive years,” Webster said in a voluminous report.

He attributed the downward trend to several factors: increased citizen interest in crime prevention; improved training and management of police officers; the growth of computer police operations--and a drop in repeat offenders because record numbers of criminals are behind bars.

FBI Chief Wary

However, the FBI chief cautioned that a slight increase in serious crime in the last quarter of 1984 “makes us wary that the unprecedented three-year period of decline may be coming to an end.”

Hubert Williams, president of the Police Foundation, a Washington-based research organization, greeted the new figures with cautious optimism.

“Those decreases of the last three years followed on the heels of tremendous increases, and we don’t know yet whether we’re observing a trend,” Williams said in an interview. “Though it is refreshing to see the numbers come down, we’ll never come to grips with crime in America until we’re able to deal with the overwhelming narcotics problem and the unbelievable proliferation of handguns.”

Overall, 11.8 million serious offenses were reported to nearly 16,000 law enforcement agencies covering 96% of the nation’s population last year. It was the first time since 1978 that the number of offenses dropped below 12 million.

Rape Increased 7%

In the violent crime category, murder declined 3% and robbery fell 4%, but aggravated assault gained 5% and rape increased 7%.

As for property crime, burglary fell 5% while larceny-theft dropped 2%. However, arson and motor vehicle theft rose 2%.

A “crime clock” in the report showed that a burglary was committed every 11 seconds on the average last year, a robbery every 65 seconds, a rape every 6 minutes and a murder every 28 minutes.

Relating the crime volume to population, the FBI report found that there were 5,031 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. That represented a 3% drop from 1983 and a 15% decline from 1980.

The cities of Los Angeles and Chicago, each with populations of slightly more than 3 million, compared this way in the number of reported offenses:

Los Angeles Chicago Murder 759 741 Aggravated assault 21,013 28,420 Robbery 27,323 28,535 Burglary 68,696 55,240 Larceny-theft 128,538 117,408 Motor vehicle theft 48,507 43,635 Rape 2,347 2,261 Arson 5,120 2,312 Total 302,303 278,552

However, the report cautioned against drawing comparisons between cities and states solely on the basis of population size. Other factors affecting the volume and type of crime from place to place include variations in the composition of population, particularly age structure, mobility of the populace, job availability, education levels, climate, strength of police forces and citizens’ attitudes toward crime.

Some of the most interesting facts that emerged from the report’s maze of numbers concerned murder. For example:

--There were 18,692 murders reported last year: 43% in the South, which, using the survey’s method of dividing the nation, was the most populous region, 21% in the West, 19% in the Midwest and 17% in the Northeast.

--Firearms were the most frequently used murder weapons. Handguns were used in 44% of the murders, shotguns in 7%, rifles in 5% and other types in 4%.

--A special study showed that 94% of black murder victims were slain by black offenders and that 89% of white murder victims were killed by white offenders.

--Likewise, males were most often slain by males (83% in single victim-single offender situations). However, this same data showed that 9 of every 10 female victims were murdered by males.

--Forty percent of all murders resulted from arguments.

--Fifty-seven percent of the murders were committed by relatives or persons acquainted with the victims.

--Of those arrested for murder, 41% were under 25 years old, 54% were white and 45% were black.

--Murders occurred more frequently in December than in any other month and least often in February.

--There were 72 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty--the lowest total since 1968, when 64 were slain.