Violent Offenses Rose 10% in 1990, FBI Report Shows : Crime: Los Angeles was among 7 cities in which more than 25% of last year’s homicides occurred.

Seven American cities recorded more than one fourth of all murders in the United States, the FBI said Sunday in releasing its preliminary crime report for 1990.

Six of the seven cities saw more murders last year than in 1989. The exception was Detroit, where there were 582 killings, or 42 fewer than in the year before.

According to 1990 Census figures, the seven cities account for slightly less than 7.5% of the U.S. population.

Overall, crimes of violence--murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault--jumped 10% in 1990.

“The growth in violent crimes is larger than I would have thought,” said Alfred Blumstein, dean of the School of Urban and Public Affairs at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Criminologists don’t consider the annual report a reliable indicator of crime trends, however, because it counts only those offenses reported to authorities.

A more accurate barometer, the experts say, is the Justice Department’s report of its annual survey of crime victims, which shows the rate of violent crime has been fairly stable in the last decade.

The FBI expressed the nationwide picture in percentages. Comparing those percentages and last year’s figures, these would be the numbers in a few categories:

--Violent crime up 10%, to about 1,810,000.

--Murder up 10%, to 23,600.

--Rape up 9%, to 103,000.

--Robbery up 11%, to 642,000.

--Aggravated assault up 10%, to 1,050,000.

In other categories:

--Burglary down 4%, to 3,040,000.

--Larceny theft unchanged, at 7,872,000,

--Motor vehicle theft up 5%, to 1,620,000.

“Today’s FBI crime figures show that America set new records for murder and rape last year,” said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has proposed a Democratic alternative to President Bush’s crime bill.

“The President and Congress must pass tough measures to fight crime, ban killer assault guns and combat the epidemic of violence against women before the death toll grows even higher,” Biden said.

Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh also saw in the statistics a need to pass a crime bill--the one proposed by the Bush Administration.

“Never before has the need for the President’s tough crime bill been so pressing and the consequences of its absence been so dramatic,” Thornburgh said.

The leading city for murder was New York City, with 2,245 homicides in 1990, an 18% increase from 1,905 in 1989.

The other five cities where the murder rate rose:

--Los Angeles, 983, up 12% from 877.

--Chicago, 850, up 15% from 742.

--Houston, 568, up 24% from 459.

--Philadelphia, 503, up 5.9% from 475.

--Washington, D.C., 472, up 8.8% from 434.

All of the 1990 figures released Sunday were based on preliminary data.