Violent and Property Crime Rates Fall the First Half of Last Year

This doesn't seem to be getting much attention:

WASHINGTON — The FBI reports that both violent and property crimes declined in 2007.

In preliminary figures for crimes reported to police, the bureau says the number of violent crimes declined by 1.4 percent from 2006, reversing two years of rising violent crime numbers. Property crimes were down 2.1 percent last year from the previous year.

The largest declines were in vehicle theft, down 8.9 percent and in rape, down 4.3 percent and murder, down 2.7 percent.

The crime trends were not uniform. Murders, for instance, were down an enormous 9.8 percent in cities of more than a million residents. But murders rose by 1.9 percent in towns of 10,000 to 25,000.

Violent crimes dropped most in the Northeast, down 5.4 percent. But it rose 0.7 percent in the South.