Christian Message Boards: For U.S.: Violent crime rate lowest in 3 decades

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Posted by Kindgo (Member # 2) on :

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Weekend News Today
Lead: Faith
Source: CNN/AP
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Tue Sep 10,2002 -- The U.S. nation saw violent crimes except murder fall by 9% last year, marking the lowest level since the government began surveying victims in 1973. A record low number of reported assaults, the most common form of violent crime, was reported. Specialists said the decade-long decrease in violent crime results mainly from the strong economy in the 1990s and tougher sentencing laws. "When people have jobs and poor neighborhoods improve, crime goes down," said Ralph Myers, a criminologist at Stanford University. "Crime also has been impacted by the implementation of tough sentencing laws at the end of the 1980s."
Since 1993, the violent crime rate in the U.S. has decreased by nearly 50%. "There is overwhelming evidence that people who commit assaults do it as a general course of their affairs," Fenmore said. So, "Putting those people behind bars drops the rate." Rape fell 8%, and sexual assaults fell 20%. About 1/2 the women who reported rapes said the perpetrator was a friend or acquaintance. The rate at which women reported rape to the police fell 19% in 2001. Crime also fell in each of the regions of the United States but showed the most dramatic decline, 19.7%, in the Midwest.