Murders in U.S. Down 12% in First Half of ’95 : Crime: Drop in FBI figures is sharpest since 1960. Other violent offenses also decline, with O.C. mirroring most of the trends.

Murders in the United States dropped 12% in the first half of 1995--the sharpest decline since the FBI began keeping tabs on six-month crime totals in 1960, the bureau said Sunday.

In cities of more than 1 million people, murders reported to police fell 19% from the first six months of 1994, according to preliminary crime figures released by the FBI.

The sharp declines came against a backdrop of decreases in all violent crime, and a smaller drop in overall serious crime.

Many of the national trends were reflected in Orange County, where there was a reported 9% decrease in crimes against persons and an 8% dip in crimes against property in the county’s biggest cities.

Only one category, murder, saw a small increase, with a 3% jump. There was a total of 68 murders reported by police agencies in Anaheim, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Orange and Santa Ana in the first six months of 1995, compared to 66 during the same period in 1994.

Los Angeles mirrored the national trend of falling crime rates, with murders dropping 4%. Statistics for the city show that violent crime--murder, rape, robbery and assault--dropped 6% in the first six months of 1995.

National Institute of Justice Director Jeremy Travis attributed the drop to law enforcement adjusting to criminal trends, ranging from the advent of crack cocaine in cities to the rise of juvenile, handgun and street violence.

“We’re seeing the impact of successful policing strategies,” Travis said.

Across the nation, “gangs are being broken up, people are being put away for a long time, and there’s an important partnership between state and federal authorities to cut down on interstate gun trafficking,” said Travis, whose institute is the Justice Department’s research arm.

He said attention to domestic violence may also be paying off. The decline in murder included a drop in spousal homicide.

Garden Grove Police Chief Stanley L. Knee said that while no one can divine the exact reasons for a decrease in crime, he credits tougher prison sentences for repeat offenders and the growing popularity of community policing programs.

“We’re putting away career criminals for longer periods of time, and a commitment to community policing is producing some real results in areas where residents were victimized in the past at a high rate,” said Knee, whose city recorded a 5% decrease in crime.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh warned, however, that the statistics also show great cause for alarm. Violent crime remains at an “intolerable level,” Freeh said. “Even more disturbing, violent crime involving young people, both as perpetrators and victims, is on the rise--an alarming indicator of future trends.” The number of juveniles arrested for weapons offenses has more than doubled over the last decade.

Freeh and other authorities took note of the fact that the crime-prone 16-to-24-year-old group in the population will grow dramatically over the next decade--which Freeh cited as an “alarming indicator of future trends.” Steering this age group away from crime is “our great task,” he said.

But Knee was more optimistic.

The growing problem of juvenile crime is also clearly reflected on the local scene. Yet Knee said the worst of gangs and other youth crimes may be behind Orange County.

“I think we may have turned the corner in reference to gangs and gang violence,” Knee said. “We’ve had a generation grow up with guns being fired in their neighborhoods, used to seeing weapons used to settle arguments. . . . Until we break that cycle--which I think we can do--you’re going to see juveniles involved in crime.”

Violent crime reported to the nation’s law enforcement agencies during the first half of this year dropped 5% from the first half of 1994, while property crime showed no change. This added up to a 1% decrease in overall serious crime.

While murder showed the sharpest drop, forcible rape was down 7%, robbery 10% and aggravated assault 2%. Among property crimes, larceny-theft was the only offense to increase; it was up 3%. The declines included burglary, down 4%; motor vehicle theft, 5%; and arson, 7%.

On a regional basis, serious crime increased in the first half of 1995 only in the West, where it was up 2%. The Northeast and South each experienced 2% declines and the Midwest had a 1% drop.

Orange County’s seven cities with populations greater than 100,000 together logged a 20% reduction in robberies. The robbery category was showed the most dramatic decreases, of 33% in Santa Ana, 31% in Orange and 20% in Huntington Beach. In contrast, Irvine had a 59% increase in robbery, while Fullerton saw a slight 2% increase.

Irvine had the fewest crimes among the cities, with 2,385, while Santa Ana led with 9,102. Orange had the biggest reduction in crimes reported, with 2,510, down 14% from the 2,923 reported a year earlier. Huntington Beach is the only city among the group that had more crimes reported, with 4,075 in the first six months of 1995, up from 4,061 in 1994.

In Los Angeles, the number of murders decreased from 374 in the first half of 1994 to 358 for the same period this year. Reported incidents of robbery fell more than 9%, from 15,362 to 14,034. Rape dropped almost 12%, from 822 to 735, and reported assaults fell 3%, from 19,078 to 18,513.

Other so-called Part 1 serious crimes fell a total of about 3%, with 134,099 total crimes reported to police between January and June. Burglary fell about 4% and vehicle theft almost 8%. The only serious crime to show an increase was theft, with a 1% rise.

A Los Angeles police spokesman, Lt. Anthony Alba, said official policies should be given some credit for the trend that has seen crime rates dropping since the early 1990s.

Some of the decrease, Alba said, can be attributed to the stricter sentencing laws for crimes against people.

The tough “three strikes and you’re out” statute, which imposes lengthy sentences on repeat offenders, has dissuaded some criminals from committing crime, as have the increased penalties for using a gun, Alba said.

Strict sentencing also has contributed to the nearly 12% drop in reported rapes during the first six months of the year, Alba said.

A sentence of more than 100 years was recently handed down to a serial rapist in the San Fernando Valley--a term that has sent criminals the message that their crimes will not be tolerated, Alba said.

“People should feel a little safer out there. Next, hopefully, the perception of crime in our community will drop just as the number of crimes have.”

Also contributing to this story was Times correspondent Geoff Boucher.