Is there a day that crime isn’t in the news? Is there any doubt in your mind how dangerous the world we live in is?
Crime is an unfortunate reality everywhere! Big cities, small towns, even rural communities.
Statistics released in the FBI’s Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report indicate that the number of violent crimes reported in the first six months of 2012 increased 1.9 % when compared with figures from the first six months of 2011. The number of property crimes increased 1.5 % for the same time frame. The report is based on information from more than 13,300 law enforcement agencies that submitted three to six comparable months of data to the FBI in the first six months of 2011 and 2012.
Violent Crime
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Two of the four offenses in the violent crime category—murder and non-negligent manslaughter and forcible rape—show decreases when data from the first six months of 2012 are compared with data from the first six months of 2011. The number of murders declined 1.7 %, and the number of rapes decreased 1.4%. But the number of robberies increased 2.0 % and aggravated assaults 2.3 %.
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Cities with populations of 250,000 to 499,999 showed an increase in violent crime of 4.7 %, the largest increase among the city population groups. Cities with less than 10,000 inhabitants experienced the only decline (0.7 %) in violent crime offenses.
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Violent crime increased 0.7 % in metropolitan counties and 0.6 % in non-metropolitan counties.
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Violent crime increased in each of the nation’s four regions. The largest increase, 3.1 %, was in the West, followed by 2.5 % in the Midwest, 1.1 % in the South, and 1.1 % in the Northeast.
Property Crime 
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All three categories of property crime—burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft—showed increases in the number of offenses from January to June 2012 when compared with data for the same months of 2011. Larceny-theft offenses increased 1.9 %. There was a 1.7 % increase in the number of motor vehicle thefts and a 0.1 % increase in burglary offenses.
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Each of the six city population groups had increases in the number of property crimes. Law enforcement agencies in cities with populations of 10,000 to 24,999 inhabitants reported the largest increase, 2.9 %. Property crime in non-metropolitan counties decreased 0.4 %; property crime in metropolitan counties remained virtually unchanged.
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Three of the four regions reported increases in the number of property crime: 4.7 % in the West, 4.0 % in the Northeast, and 1.3 % in the Midwest. Property crime declined 1.4 % in the South.
Arson
The statistics for arson, collected separately from other property crimes because of varying degrees of reporting among law enforcement agencies, showed an overall jump of 3.2 % during the first six months of 2012. Three of the four regions reported increases in the number of arsons — 11.0 % in the Midwest; 6.4 % in the West; and 5.7 % in the Northeast. There was a 5.6 decrease in arson offenses in the South.
Arson offenses increased 19.1 % in cities with populations of 25,000 to 49,999, the largest increase within the city groupings. Arson offenses decreased 6.0 % in metropolitan counties and 4.3 % in non-metropolitan counties.
Are we so bad at reducing crimes?!