Crime rate drops significantly

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON

The nation’s crime rate dropped an additional 5 percent last year, continuing a 20-year trend that has cut the incidence of major crimes nearly in half, according to the FBI’s crime statistics.

Crime experts have cited several possible explanations for the falling crime rate, including better policing, a swelling of the prison population, the decline of the crack-cocaine epidemic and an aging population.

Last year, the rate of murders and manslaughter was 5.0 per 100,000 Americans, down from 9.8 in 1991. Overall, the rate of violent crimes fell more than a third during that time, from a rate of 758 per 100,000 in 1991 to 429 last year. This number includes homicides, rapes, robberies and assaults.

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