The Nation - News from Oct. 10, 1988

Crime levels rose 1.8% last year, ending a five-year trend of falling crime rates, the government reported. The number of personal and household crimes rose about 613,000 in 1987 to more than 34.7 million, according to the study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. In 1986, the number of crimes hit the lowest level in the 15-year history of the government’s national crime survey, 34.1 million. Even with the increase, crime levels last year were 16% lower than in 1981, the peak year with 41.5 million crimes committed, said Joseph Bessette, acting director of the bureau, a Justice Department agency. In its regional breakdown, the survey said there were 125.4 personal crimes for every 1,000 people living in the West, 101.3 for those in the Midwest, 91 for those in the South, and 70.7 for the Northeast.