Crime Rate Is Steady: 1 in 4 Homes Hit
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WASHINGTON — Crime against person or property affected one in four American households last year, a rate virtually the same as that of the past five years, a Justice Department report said Sunday.
“In 1975, when this statistical series commenced, about one in three households was struck by crime,” said Steven Dillingham of the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
The percentage of households that were scenes of violence or of burglary or other property crime in 1989 was 24.9%, up slightly from 24.6% in 1988, the report said. The figures include attempts as well as completed crimes.
In 23.5 million households, one of these crimes occurred: rape, assault, robbery, personal theft, theft of household goods, burglary and auto theft.
The figures come from the National Crime Survey, which annually surveys members of 49,000 households nationwide.
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