2012 Brought Slight Uptick in Crime
The number of violent crimes reported by law enforcement for the first half of 2012 increased 1.9 percent over figures from the same six month period in 2011, according to statistics from the FBI Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January-June 2012.
Two of the four offenses in the violent crime category showed overall decreases compared to the same period in 2011 – murders dropped 1.7 percent, and forcible rapes decreased by 1.4 percent. But the number of robberies and aggravated assaults increased 2.0 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, the FBI reports.
The West saw the largest overall jump in violent crime – an increase of 3.1 percent – followed by 2.5 percent increase in the Midwest and 1.1 percent in both the South and the Northeast. But despite these increases, the number of murders fell 4.8 percent in the South and 2.4 percent in the Northeast, the report states.
The only violent crime offense category that showed increases in every region of the U.S. was aggravated assault – up 4.4 percent in the Midwest, 2.4 percent in the West, 1.7 percent in the South and 0.8 percent in the Northeast, the report notes.
In terms of property crime, all three offense categories showed overall increases – 1.9 percent for larceny-theft, 1.7 percent for motor vehicle theft and 0.1 percent for burglary – which combine for an overall rise of 1.5 percent for property crime.
The FBI is also announcing new offense categories: the Bureau will begin collecting human trafficking data in two categories – commercial sex acts and involuntary servitude.
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