The FBI’s Preliminary Uniform Crime Report released Monday showed a decrease in crime nationwide, with violent crimes in the first half of 2011 down 6.4 percent when compared to the first half of 2010, according to the report.
The report, which contains data from January to June 2011, also showed a decline in property crimes by 3.7 percent.
The violent crime category showed a drop in incidents across the board. According to the report, murder was down 5.7 percent, rape fell by 5.1 percent, robbery was down 7.7 percent and aggravated assault was down by 5.9 percent.
Attorney General Eric Holder released a statement Monday, saying “safe neighborhoods are the underpinning of our nation’s prosperity, and this Department of Justice has made protecting the American people from violent crime a top priority.”
“Ensuring that law enforcement has the necessary resources is critical to continuing our aggressive fight against violent crime. Although we can all be encouraged that violent crime rates continue to decline nationwide, it is clear that we must remain vigilant and more work remains to be done,” he said in the statement.
