Violent Crime Fell 4% in ‘94, FBI Reports

Every 17 seconds last year, on average, a violent crime was committed somewhere in America. They include a forcible rape every five minutes, a murder every 23 minutes, an aggravated assault every 28 seconds and a robbery every 51 seconds.

While this “crime clock” of violations reported to the police and chronicled by the FBI’s uniform crime reports does not mean that the offenses actually took place with that precise regularity, it illustrates the relative frequency of violent crime across the country.

The sense of violation is compounded by the frequent incidence of nonviolent property crimes, which are logged at an average of one every three seconds. A larceny or theft occurs every four seconds, a burglary every 12 seconds and a motor vehicle theft every 20 seconds, the FBI calculates.

Still, there is a silver lining in the FBI’s annual report on crime in the United States, which was released Saturday. The rate of violent crime declined 4% from 1993’s level, part of a 2% dip in the total number of serious crimes reported to police.

In the nine U.S. cities with populations exceeding 1 million, the rate of violent crime dropped 8%, the bureau reported. These include Los Angeles, where violent crime fell 13%, and San Diego, where it declined 7%, according to a Justice Department analysis of the FBI data.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh cautioned that the reductions are “modest” and said he is not surprised that fear of violent crime still appears to be rising.

“We’re talking about a crime rate that reflects 23,000 murders a year,” Freeh said in an interview.

While it is significant that the murder total declined slightly from the 24,000 logged the previous year, the 1994 total is still “a very alarming figure,” Freeh said.

“Because we see violent crime committed everywhere in the country and particularly by an increasingly growing and violent juvenile population, I think there are great fears,” he said. “The structures that have been in place for many years to guarantee safe communities and families are not present anymore. In fact, they’re deteriorating.”

He cited an ominous increase in the rate of juvenile crime and significant expansion of the crime-prone age group over the next 10 years as cause for concern about crime trends. “I don’t think we should take a lot of comfort in the statistics,” he said.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno attributed the drop in reported crimes to a confluence of factors. They range from the success of community policing efforts and greater intervention in domestic violence to the gradual deployment of additional police officers authorized by New York City four years ago.

Even though the incidence of youth violence has begun to level off, “it’s still at rates that are just intolerable, if we reflect on the increase in the number of young people in the next 20 years,” Reno said.

For the greater metropolitan Los Angeles area, the FBI statistics show the following reductions in reported crime: 9% in all offenses, 11% in violent crime, 8% in property crime, 15% in murder and non-negligent manslaughter, 14% in forcible rape, 16% in robbery, 7% in aggravated assault, 11% in burglary; 5% in larceny and theft, and 11% in motor vehicle theft.

Los Angeles authorities had earlier said the decreases may have resulted from a higher police presence, including extra patrols after the Northridge earthquake and during soccer’s World Cup.

Data collected on weapons used in murders, robberies and aggravated assaults shows that firearms and “personal weapons”--hands, fists, feet and the like--were used in 31% of offenses. But firearms figured in about seven out of every 10 murders reported during 1994.

The total of 102,096 forcible rapes reported to law enforcement authorities last year was down 4% from 1993, and represents the lowest total since 1989. Likewise, the 1994 murder count of 23,305 was the lowest since 1989.

Seventy-nine percent of murder victims last year were males, and 88% were 18 or older. By race, 51% of victims were black and 47% were white, including Latinos. In the murder cases, 91% of assailants were male, 84% were at least 18 years of age, 56% were black, and 42% white.

This year’s FBI crime report includes analyses of prostitution arrests and child homicide victims.

Analyzing prostitution arrests from 1970 through 1993, the FBI found that they peaked in 1983 at 125,600 and have dropped sharply since. While no precise data exists to determine what caused the decline, the FBI cited as possibilities the degree of law enforcement emphasis, changes in sexual attitudes and changes in the way prostitutes operate.

Those arrested for prostitution and related offenses are increasingly male. Blacks accounted for 64% of prostitution arrests 25 years ago; whites made up 62% of such arrests in 1993.

The decline in arrest rates is far greater for women, with arrests of women dropping 29% and men 7% from 1970 to 1993. Those arrested for prostitution, including pimping charges, are increasingly men.

The FBI noted that the trends in prostitution arrests date back to the mid-1980s, a time when the nation was experiencing the initial stages of the AIDS epidemic and the emergence of crack cocaine.

“AIDS has influenced sexual attitudes, particularly with regard to safe sex,” the report says. The spread of crack cocaine led to the proliferation of crack houses, where sex is sometimes exchanged for drugs, the report says.

One possible consequence is a reduction in the number of street prostitutes who are more likely to be subject to arrest, the FBI said, cautioning that no direct relationship can be established.

While the homicide rate for all ages fell 12% from 1980 through 1994, the homicide rate for children rose 6%. The largest age group of victims were children younger than 2, at 45% of all child homicide victims. Within that group, newborns and infants younger than 1 accounted for 29% of all children murdered over the 15-year period.

The FBI found that domestic or within-family murders of children accounted for 54% of all such cases. In 80% of the cases, the offender either knew or was acquainted with the victim.

The study found that 3% of children were killed by baby-sitters. Strangers committed 6% of the child murders. The victim-to-offender relationship was unknown in 15% of the cases.

Times researcher D’Jamila Salem contributed to this story.

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