Violent crime up for second straight year

Dec 19, 2006 3:28 PM

A surge in violent crime that began last year accelerated in the first half of 2006, the FBI reported this week, providing the clearest signal yet that the historic drop in the U.S. crime rate has ended and is being reversed.

Reports of homicides, assaults and other violent offenses surged by nearly 4 percent in the first six months of the year compared to the same time period in 2005, according to the FBI's latest Uniform Crime Report. The numbers included an increase of nearly 10 percent for robberies, which many criminologists consider a leading indicator of coming trends, The Washington Post reports.

The results follow a 2.5 percent jump in violent crime for 2005, which at the time represented the largest increase in 15 years.

The latest numbers suggest that those results were not an anomaly but rather part of the first significant uptick in violent crime since the early 1990s.

Many communities, particularly those in urbanized areas, may be headed into a period of sustained crime increases, they said. While no one is certain of the causes, experts cited an increase in the number of young men in their crime-prone years, diminished crime-fighting assistance from the federal government, fewer jobs for people with marginal skills and even the ongoing growth in methamphetamine use in some places.

The numbers come amid heightened criticism of the federal government from many police chiefs and state law enforcement officials, who complain that the Bush administration has retreated from fighting traditional crime in favor of combating terrorism and protecting Homeland security, the newspaper reports. Justice officials dispute those contentions and pointed yesterday to an ongoing study designed to identify solutions to the rise in violent crime.

One positive piece of news came in the category of car thefts and other property crimes, which dropped 2.6 percent overall. Even that portion of the report contained some bad tidings, however: Burglaries, another key indicator, rose 1.2 percent nationwide.

The numbers are certain to increase pressure on the Bush administration, whose detractors say local police concerns have been slighted by the focus on Homeland security and counterterrorism.

The Justice Department inspector general's office has reported sharp declines in the number of FBI agents and investigations dedicated to traditional crimes since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In addition, the International Association of Chiefs of Police says that law enforcement programs at the Justice Department have been cut by more than $2 billion since 2002 and that overall funding for such programs has been reduced to levels of a decade ago.

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