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.
