FBI
Releases Preliminary Crime Statistics for January–June
2004
Washington, D.C. — Violent crime in the Nation
decreased 2.0 percent, and property crime declined
1.9 percent from January–June 2004 when compared
to data from the same time frame in 2003 according
to the FBI’s Preliminary Semiannual Uniform
Crime Report released today.
For their data to be included in this report, law
enforcement agencies must have contributed three–six
months of comparable data to the FBI from January–June
2003 and January–June 2004. In the Nation,
10,782 agencies met that criteria.
Violent Crime
Of the four violent crimes (murder, forcible rape,
robbery, and aggravated assault), forcible rape
was the only one to increase in volume, 1.4 percent,
during this time frame. In volume, murder decreased
5.7 percent, robbery declined 5.0 percent, and aggravated
assault decreased 0.9 percent.
An examination of the data by population group for
these two 6-month periods showed that collectively
the Nation’s largest cities (those with a
million and over inhabitants) had the largest decline
in overall violent crime, 4.8 percent, even though
they showed a 6.5-percent increase in forcible rape.
Violent crime in the Nation’s metropolitan
counties decreased
1.7 percent, and in the nonmetropolitan counties,
it decreased 1.8 percent.
A look at the data by region showed that law enforcement
agencies in the Midwest reported a 2.8-percent decline
in the number of violent offenses. Law enforcement
agencies in the South reported a 2.4-percent decrease
in the volume of violent crimes, those in the West
reported a 1.8-percent decline, and those in the
Northeast, a 1.0-percent decrease. In addition,
law enforcement in all four regions showed declines
in the number of homicides when comparing January–June
2003 data with 2004 data from the same time period.
However, law enforcement agencies in all four regions
showed increases in the volume of forcible rapes.
Property Crime
Overall
in the Nation, the data for property crime showed
that the number of burglaries declined 2.2 percent,
larceny-theft offenses decreased 1.9 percent, and
motor vehicle thefts decreased 1.6 percent in the
first half of 2004 when compared to the number of
offenses that occurred in the first half of 2003.
By population group, in that same time frame, cities
with populations ranging from 250,000 to 499,999
had the largest decrease in property crime, 4.8
percent. Cities with populations of 50,000 to 99,999
registered the smallest decline, 0.6 percent. Metropolitan
counties had a decrease of 1.5 percent, and property
crime in nonmetropolitan counties declined 4.5 percent.
By region, a comparison of data reported for the
first six months of 2003 to those reported for the
first six months of 2004 showed that agencies in
the West experienced a slight increase (+0.2 percent)
in the number of reported property crimes. Law enforcement
agencies in the other regions showed a decrease
in reported property crimes: in the Midwest, property
crime declined 5.6 percent; in the South, it fell
1.6 percent, and in the Northeast, it decreased
1.4 percent. Among the four regions, the West was
the only region to show an increase in the volume
of motor vehicle thefts, 2.5 percent. In volume,
motor vehicle thefts in the Northeast decreased
8.6 percent; in the South, they declined 3.6 percent;
and in the Midwest, motor vehicle thefts decreased
1.6 percent.
Considered by the UCR Program to be a property crime,
arson offenses are not included in the property
crime total. For the Nation as a whole, the volume
of arsons dropped 6.8 percent for the first six
months of 2004 when compared to the arson offenses
reported in the same time period in 2003. Agencies
in all four regions reported decreases in the number
of arsons:
10.2 percent in the Northeast, 8.1 percent in the
Midwest, 6.6 percent in the West, and
5.1 percent in the South.
The complete Preliminary Semiannual Uniform
Crime Report is available at the FBI’s
Internet site at <www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm>.
