Violent Crime Surges for First Time in 5 Years

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 12, 2006; 1:33 PM

Overall violent crime reports surged for the first time in 15 years in 2005, including a 5 percent increase in the District, according to preliminary FBI statistics released today.

The FBI's annual crime report shows increases in three of the four major categories of violent crime -- murder, robbery and assault -- contributing to an overall increase of 2.5 percent in violent offenses from 2004.

The increase affected all categories of cities except those over 1 million in population, such as New York, Los Angeles and Detroit, where violent offenses continued to fall.

In the District, violent crime jumped by 5 percent from 2004 to 2005, driven exlusively by a 14 percent increase in robberies, the statistics show. The number of murders in the city dropped slightly, from 198 to 195, as did the numbers of rapes and assaults.

The opposite trend held in Baltimore, where violent crime dropped 3.5 percent overall.

The rise in violent offenses nationally represents the largest overall crime spike since 1991 and the first significant increase since 1992, when crime began to plummet dramatically on its way to the lowest levels in three decades.

But property crimes -- including burglary, theft and arson -- continued to register improvement in 2005, decreasing 1.6 percent from the year before.

The biggest rise came in murders, which rose 4.8 percent, to nearly 17,000, in 2005. Killings jumped particularly dramatically in cities, including Cleveland (up 38 percent), Houston (23 percent) and Phoenix (9 percent).

Robberies rose 4.5 percent and assaults grew by 1.9 percent, according to the FBI statistics. The only category of violent crime to fall was forcible rape, which dropped 1.9 percent nationwide.

On a regional basis, the increase disproportionately hit the Midwest, where violent crimes surged 5.7 percent -- at least three times the rate seen in the Northeast, South or West.

The District's 5 percent violent crime increase was due solely to a jump in the number of reported robberies, which rose from 3,057 in 2004 to 3,502 in 2005. In addition to the slight drop in murders, the city also reported a 24 percent drop in reported rapes and nine fewer assaults, to 3,854.

The FBI data is taken from reports submitted by more than 12,000 police departments and other law enforcement agencies nationwide. A final report, including more detailed statistics, will be issued in the fall.

Original Story