Bureau of Justice Statistics Releases Report on Homicide Trends
Justin Fenton, Baltimore Sun, November 16, 2011
The Bureau of Justice Statistics today released a report on homicide trends in the United States between 1980 and 2010, showing that homicide nationwide have declined to the lowest point in four decades.
The largest decline was in cities with a population of one million or more, where the homicide rate dropped from 35.5 homicides per 100,000 residents in 1991 to 11.9 per 100,000 in 2008. The nationwide rate during that time period fell from an all-time high of 9.8 homicides per 100,000 in 1991 to 4.8 in 2010.
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The report says that most murders are intra-racial–the victimization rate for blacks was 6 times higher than for whites, while the offending rate for blacks was almost 8 times higher than the rate for whites–and the number of homicides known to be caused by gang violence has quadrupled since 1980.
[Editor’s Note: View the full report here.]
