Crimes of Violence Hit 24-Year Low in Survey

Violent crime in America continued its recent downward slide in 1997, falling almost 7% to its lowest level in at least 24 years, the Justice Department reported Sunday.

Property crime also dropped to its lowest rate since the government began conducting annual household surveys of crime victimization in 1973. The violent-crime rate has fallen more than 21% since 1993; property crime rates, which have decreased steadily since the mid-1970s, are down 22% since 1993.

In 1997, the National Crime Victimization Survey found, Americans age 12 or older were victims of almost 35 million crimes, down from nearly 37 million in 1996 and about 44 million in 1973.

“These new figures again show that our strategy of more police, stricter gun laws and better crime prevention is working,” President Clinton said in a statement. “But we are not yet done. . . . We must redouble our efforts to make our streets, homes and schools safer for all Americans.”

Most segments of the population experienced reduced violent and property crimes. One exception: Americans at least 50 years of age were crime victims as frequently in 1997 as in 1993.

The annual survey measures crimes reported to the police and those that go unreported. Information was gathered from interviews with about 80,000 individuals in 43,000 households during 1997.

Violent crime, as measured by the survey, includes rape and sexual assault, robbery and assault. It does not include murder or manslaughter because of the reliance on interviews with victims.

The FBI’s unified crime reports, based on reports to state and local police officials nationwide, said last month that the murder rate declined 8% during 1997. A total of 18,210 murders last year represents a 28% drop since 1993.

A report released earlier this month by the FBI shows that the downward trend is continuing this year. The report, broken down by city, credited Los Angeles with a 10% drop in serious crime during the first half of 1998. Several California cities showed similar drops, the bureau found.

Alfred Blumstein, an expert on crime rates at Carnegie Mellon University, said an important factor in the reduction of violent crime has been a decrease in the crack cocaine trade, which had triggered a diffusion of guns among young males for protection, revenge and robbery.

“Fortunately, that was accompanied by good economic times so that there were legitimate jobs for the young people” entering the work force, Blumstein said.

He added that a significant drop in the number of individuals carrying guns was due to a combination of the Brady handgun bill; aggressive screening of multiple gun purchases by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to prevent illegal secondary sales; and efforts by police and community groups to get gangs to disarm or declare truces.

The Justice Department survey found that about 39 of every 1,000 U.S. residents age 12 and older said they were victims of violent crimes in 1997, compared with 42 in 1996 and 48 during 1973. It reported 248 attempted or completed property crimes per 1,000 U.S. households in 1997, down from 266 in 1996 and 554 in 1973.

The West had higher rates of both violent and property crime than other parts of the country last year. The rate of violent crime and personal theft in the West was 48.4 per 1,000 compared with 38.1 in the South, 36.4 in the Midwest and 34.6 in the Northeast. The survey does not offer state-by-state statistics.

Those earning less than $7,500 annually were more than twice as likely to be victims of a violent crime or theft than those with incomes of $75,000 or more, the survey found.

“In 1997, as in previous years, males were more vulnerable to violent crimes than females, younger people more vulnerable than older people and blacks more vulnerable than whites,” the Justice Department reported. And both violent and property crime rates were highest in urban areas and lowest for rural residents.

The nation’s robbery rate fell more than 17% last year from 1996. The rate for rape and sexual assault remained the same after plunging 44% from 1993 to 1996.

Among property crimes, the theft rate dropped 8%, but the changes in the rate of household burglary and motor vehicle theft were not statistically significant.

About half of all violent crimes in 1997 were committed by someone whom the victim knew. Rape and sexual assault victims were the most likely to have known the offender, robbery victims the least.

Overall, the survey found that just over 37% of all crimes were reported to police. Fewer than one-third of rapes and sexual attacks were reported, whereas police were informed of 80% of motor vehicle thefts, a rate that the Justice Department attributed to insurance concerns.

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The Receding Crime Wave

Number of crimes per 1,000 persons age 12 or older

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Rape Robbery Assault Change * -44% -28% -19%

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* Change from 1993 to 1997

Source: Justice Department, National Crime Victimization Survey