DoubleEdgeSword
Dec 20th, 2006, 06:14 AM
December 19, 2006 · Violent crime rose in cities and towns across the country in the first half of 2006, according to preliminary data from the FBI. The findings signal that a long period of declining crime in the United States is not just at an end, it's heading in the other direction.
Violent crime rose in cities and towns across the country in the first half of 2006, according to preliminary data from the FBI.
The surge in violent crime is an ominous sign for police officers and criminologists who were hoping last year's increase was just a blip.
"Robbery has jumped up by over 9 percent, and murder has jumped up by 1.5 percent," says Alfred Blumstein, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University who has been tracking crime numbers for 30 years.
The FBI report, which compiled numbers from almost 12,000 police departments, found violent crime was up almost 4 percent from 2005 -- a year which already saw an increase from the year before. Blumstein finds the robbery numbers especially troubling, because they've always served as a warning of what's to come.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6647024
Violent crime rose in cities and towns across the country in the first half of 2006, according to preliminary data from the FBI.
The surge in violent crime is an ominous sign for police officers and criminologists who were hoping last year's increase was just a blip.
"Robbery has jumped up by over 9 percent, and murder has jumped up by 1.5 percent," says Alfred Blumstein, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University who has been tracking crime numbers for 30 years.
The FBI report, which compiled numbers from almost 12,000 police departments, found violent crime was up almost 4 percent from 2005 -- a year which already saw an increase from the year before. Blumstein finds the robbery numbers especially troubling, because they've always served as a warning of what's to come.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6647024