Crime
Trends, 2001 Preliminary Figures (pdf). You
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Today the Federal
Bureau of Investigation announced that preliminary 2001 data indicate
a 2.0-percent increase in the Nation's Crime Index from the 2000 figure.
The Crime Index, which is measured by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting
(UCR) Program, is composed of murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated
assault, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. The Modified
Crime Index includes the property crime of arson. Final figures for
2001 will be available this fall.
Including the offenses
surrounding the events of September 11, 2001, preliminary data show
that the 2001 Crime Index remains at the 2.0-percent increase from the
2000 figure; the volume of violent crime increased 0.6 percent; and
the murder volume increased 26.4 percent. However, the FBI advised that
the figures reflecting the offenses from the events of September 11
are not included in the following trend data (reflected in Tables 1-3)
because they are statistical outliers that will affect current and future
crime trends.
Preliminary figures
for 2001, excluding the data mentioned above, suggest that the volume
of violent crime offenses remained relatively unchanged-a 0.3-percent
increase-when compared with data for 2000; however, the volume of property
crime offenses rose by 2.2 percent.
Among violent crimes,
robbery showed the greatest increase, 3.9 percent. Murder rose 3.1 percent,
and forcible rape showed a minimal increase of 0.2 percent. Aggravated
assault, which is the most frequently occurring violent crime in the
Index, was the only violent offense to show a decrease from the 2000
volume-1.4 percent. In the property crime category, motor vehicle theft
increased 5.9 percent, and burglary rose 2.6 percent. Arson and larceny-theft
increased 2.0 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.
Collectively, law
enforcement agencies in three of the Nation's four geographical regions
reported increases in their Crime Index totals. Agencies in the West
recorded a 4.5 percent increase; agencies in the South, a 1.9-percent
increase; and agencies in the Midwest, a 0.9-percent increase. Northeastern
agencies collectively noted an overall Crime Index decrease of 1.2 percent.
The volume of violent
crime rose in the Southern region and the Western region, increasing
1.7 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively. Conversely, violent crimes
fell in the Northeastern region by 2.3 percent and in the Midwestern
region by 1.0 percent. Three of the four regions had increases in the
violent crime of murder: 8.0 percent in the West, 7.7 percent in the
Northeast, and 4.1 percent in the Midwest. The Southern region had the
only decrease in murder, down 2.1 percent from 2000 to 2001.
Concerning property crime, the Western region experienced a 5.0-percent
increase in volume; the Southern region, a 1.9-percent increase; and
the Midwest, a 1.1-percent increase. The only regional decline for property
crime was reported by agencies in the Northeast at 1.0 percent.
Crime Index offenses
increased in all city population groups, with the largest increase,
3.9 percent, recorded in cities with populations of 250,000 to 499,999,
and the smallest increase, 0.8 percent, reported for cities with under
10,000 inhabitants. The Crime Index total also rose in the Nation's
suburban counties, 2.4 percent, and in the rural counties, 0.6 percent.
Nearly 17,000 city,
county, and state law enforcement agencies voluntarily submit data to
the nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of the FBI's UCR Program.
These comprehensive data are published annually in Crime in the United
States.