The overall number of property crimes declined in the U.S. while the number of violent crimes rose for the first six months of 2015 compared to 2014.
The FBI report — Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report— is based on information from 12,879 law enforcement agencies that submitted three to six months of comparable data to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for the first six months of 2014 and 2015.
All of the offenses in the violent crime category—murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape (revised definition), rape (legacy definition), aggravated assault, and robbery—showed increases. Rapes increased 9.6 percent, murders increased 6.2 percent, aggravated assaults increased 2.3 percent, the number of rapes (revised definition) rose 1.1 percent, and robbery offenses were up 0.3 percent.
Violent crime increased in all but two city groupings. In cities with populations from 50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants, violent crime was down 0.3 percent, and in cities with 500,000 to 999,999 in population, violent crime decreased 0.1 percent. The largest increase in violent crime, 5.3 percent, was noted in cities with 250,000 to 499,999 in population.
Violent crime decreased 3.3 percent in non-metropolitan counties but rose slightly, 0.1 percent, in metropolitan counties.
Violent crime increased in all but one of the nation’s four regions. These crimes were down 3.2 percent in the Northeast but increased 5.6 percent in the West, followed by rises of 1.6 percent in the South and 1.4 percent in the Midwest.
Property Crime
In the property crime category, burglary offenses dropped 9.8 percent, and larceny-theft offenses decreased 3.2 percent in the first six months of 2015 compared with the same months from 2014. Only motor vehicle theft showed an increase (1.0 percent).
Each of the city population groups had decreases in the overall number of property crimes. Law enforcement agencies in cities with populations under 10,000 inhabitants reported the largest decrease, 7.1 percent.
Property crime decreased 12.3 percent in non-metropolitan counties and 6.0 percent in metropolitan counties.
The West was the only region to show an increase (2.4 percent) in property crime. Reports of these offenses declined 8.0 percent in the Northeast, 7.0 percent in the Midwest, and 6.4 percent in the South.
Arson
The number of arson offenses decreased 5.4 percent. Arsons were down 14.6 percent in the Northeast, 7.1 percent in the South, and 4.4 percent in the West. However, in the Midwest, arson offenses rose 0.5 percent.
Arson offenses were down 14.0 percent in cities with populations under 10,000, the largest decrease within the city groupings. The only city grouping to experience an increase was in those cities with populations from 500,000 to 999,999, where arson offenses rose 11.9 percent. Arsons decreased 16.4 percent in non-metropolitan counties and 4.7 percent in metropolitan counties.
Source: FBI
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
The Future Is Near for Self-Driving Trucks on US Roads 
4,800 Claims Handled by Unlicensed Adjusters in Florida After Irma, Lawsuit Says 
Investors Are Increasingly Interested in a Novel Type of Weather Insurance 
Growing Progressive Set to Hire 10,000+ in Claims, IT, Other Roles 
