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Violent crime numbers drop for second year in row
by David Stout/New York Times
Monday September 14, 2009, 10:07 PM


WASHINGTON -- A young black man being shot to death by another black man who is an acquaintance continues to be the most "typical" homicide in America, according to an FBI report released on Monday that showed an overall drop in violent crime for the second year in a row.

The FBI figures show that nearly as many blacks as whites were homicide victims in 2008, even though 80 percent of Americans are white, compared with 13 percent who are black, according to Census Bureau figures.

Based on census figures for white and black men of all ages, a black man was roughly six times as likely to be a homicide victim as a white man in 2008.

Of the nearly 17,000 homicide victims last year, 6,782 were black and 6,838 were white, the FBI said, with men several times more likely to be victims than women.

Of the more than 16,000 people arrested for homicide in the United States in 2008, 5,943 were black and 5,334 white, with several thousand other suspects classified as belonging to other races or as race unknown.

For both whites and blacks, men ages 17 to 30 were the most "typical" victims and killers. Overall, men were several times more likely than women to be the victims and the killers.

Justifiable killings by the police or civilians, suicides and deaths due to negligence are not included in the homicide statistics.

While the estimated number of all violent crimes declined for the second year, property crimes also fell overall in 2008, the sixth straight yearly drop in these offenses.

The FBI data released Monday showed that 23.3 percent of murder victims were slain by family members, and 54.7 percent were killed by acquaintances, while only 22 percent were murdered by strangers. Of last year's homicides, 9,484 involved firearms, 6,755 of which were handguns, the FBI said.

In each of the four violent crime offenses, the 2008 rates were down from 2007. Murder and non-negligent manslaughter dropped 3.9 percent; aggravated assault declined 2.5 percent; forcible rape declined 1.6 percent; and robbery was down 0.7 percent. The figures are based on offenses per 100,000 people.

The 2008 violent crime rate was 454.5 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants (a 2.7 percent decrease from the 2007 rate), and the property crime rate was 3,212.5 per 100,000 persons (a 1.6 percent decrease from 2007).




http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2009/09/violent_crime_numbers_drop_for.html

Interesting.

It seems like things are getting worse if you watch the news, but I'm sure that's just because they need stories that will generate all kinds of emotions, and violent crimes often stir several different emotions (fear, sorrow, anger...)

I was really surprised by the property crimes stat, as it seems there's several news reports of burglaries and/or home invasions a week around here now, and with the economy being bad, and people out of work, there tends to be more crime.

That's just because they didn't want to look bad on Hard Knocks. After this season runs, I'm sure the numbers will go back up.

But society is so much worse than it was ever was in history

Quote:

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It seems like things are getting worse if you watch the news, but I'm sure that's just because they need stories that will generate all kinds of emotions,

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Maybe that explains why they spent 7 paragraphs explaining how blacks are more likely to be killed than whites before they even mentioned that violent crime is down...

And the very first words of the article are "A young black man being shot..... " I wonder how many people would keep reading if the lead in was "Violent crime statistics show drop.... "

If anyone is interested in this topic as a whole I'd recommend Gregg Easterbrook's book titled "The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse".

It's an interesting read.

How much of a role do you think the increase in law abiding citizens acquiring firearms and concealed carry licenses plays in this?

If I had to guess I'd say very little . Could it also be that they changed the way they gathered the stats to support the argument that crime has indeed dropped ? Don't know the reason they would do it though.

Who knows for sure?
Florida made a law 10-15 years ago allowing people to carry concealed.... violent crime went down. People don't wanna mess with somebody if they might be packing.

I'm not sure you could alter the way those numbers are tallied very much, especially the number of homicides.

I found it bizarre that almost 1/4 the murders involved family members. I think I'll buy my wife some flowers tonight.