Violent Crime Fell in 2008, F.B.I. Report Says

9-15-2009 National:

WASHINGTON — A young black man being shot to death by another black man who is an acquaintance continues to be the most “typical” homicide in the United States, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigations report released on Monday that showed an overall drop in violent crime for the second year in a row.

The F.B.I. figures show that nearly as many black people as white were homicide victims in 2008, even though 80 percent of Americans are white, compared with 13 percent who are black, according to Census Bureau figures.

To put it another way, based on census figures for white and black men of all ages, a black man was roughly six times as likely to be a homicide victim as a white man in 2008.

Of the nearly 17,000 homicide victims last year, 6,782 were black and 6,838 were white, the F.B.I. said, with men several times more likely to be victims than women. Several hundred other victims were classified as belonging to other races or as race unknown.

Of the more than 16,000 people arrested for homicide in the United States in 2008, 5,943 were black and 5,334 white, with several thousand other suspects classified as belonging to other races or as race unknown.

For both whites and blacks, men ages 17 to 30 were the most “typical” victims and killers. Over all, men were several times more likely than women to be the victims and the killers.

Justifiable killings by the police or civilians, suicides and deaths due to negligence are not included in the homicide statistics.

While the estimated number of all violent crimes in the nation declined for the second year, property crimes also fell over all in 2008, the sixth straight yearly drop in these offenses.

The information, based on data sent to the F.B.I. from police agencies, is explained in detail in the report, “Crime in the United States,” which is offered with caveats.

Aware of the temptation to rank cities or regions according to how safe they are, the F.B.I. cautioned that “these rough rankings provide no insight into the numerous variables that mold crime in a particular town, city, county, state or region.” The report continued, “Consequently, they lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents.”

As Bill Carter, an F.B.I. spokesman, said Monday, the agency does not “cite any specific reasons” for crime rising or falling.

“We leave that up to the academics and the criminologists and the sociologists,” Mr. Carter said.

The F.B.I. data released Monday showed that 23.3 percent of murder victims were slain by family members, and 54.7 percent were killed by acquaintances, while only 22 percent were murdered by strangers. Of last year’s homicides, 9,484 involved firearms, 6,755 of which were handguns, the F.B.I. said.

In each of the four violent crime offenses, the 2008 rates were down from 2007. Murder and non-negligent manslaughter dropped 3.9 percent; aggravated assault declined 2.5 percent; forcible rape declined 1.6 percent; and robbery was down 0.7 percent. The figures are based on offenses per 100,000 people.

Burglaries rose 2 percent in 2008, and larceny-thefts went up three-tenths of 1 percent. But motor vehicle theft dropped 12.7 percent.

The 2008 violent crime rate was 454.5 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants (a 2.7 percent decrease from the 2007 rate), and the property crime rate was 3,212.5 per 100,000 persons (a 1.6 percent decrease from 2007).

Crime statistics can vary, depending on who is doing the counting. Information from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which like the F.B.I., is a Justice Department agency, is based on surveys of households and individuals, instead of relying on police data. On Sept. 2, the statistics bureau said its figures showed that violent crime was unchanged in 2008 and that property crime was down slightly.

And the F.B.I. report released on Monday, while packed full of statistics, is based in part on estimates, since some of the more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies that participate in the F.B.I. survey could not or did not provide complete totals for the year. Hence, while 14,180 homicides were documented in 2008, the F.B.I. estimated the actual number at just over 16,700.

While Mr. Carter of the F.B.I. declined to discuss crime trends, he speculated that better medical care in recent years has spared some assault victims from being listed eventually as homicide victims. ..Source.. by DAVID STOUT