Violent crime in the United States was down by 5.4 percent in the first six months of 2013, according to the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics published Tuesday.

The FBI’s Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report compiles offenses recorded by law enforcement agencies throughout the United States to provide an overview of crime trends from the first six months of the year. According to the report, the 2013 statistics reveal decreases among all violent crime categories with the exception of rape, which has recently been redefined to include a wider range of offenses. The FBI’s definition of violent crime includes murder, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery.

The 2013 numbers indicate that the country has resumed its downward trend after a brief 1.9 percent increase was recorded in 2012. Violent crime in the United States has declined in the first six months of the year during the last five out of six years.

The Midwest experienced the largest change in violent crime in the beginning of 2013, with an overall drop of 7.4 percent. Of this change, the largest decrease was recorded in forcible rape, which went down by 14.3 percent under the old definition, followed by aggravated assault, which was down by 9.1 percent.

For a visualization of recent violent crime trends see our infographic.

Violent crime also decreased in each of the eight population groupings defined by the FBI, falling more than 9 percent in cities with less than 100,000 people. The number of murder in cities with 1,000,000 people or more also decreased dramatically by 18.5 percent. Among Law Street’s most dangerous cities over 200,000, half experienced violent crime declines. One of the most notable cases was St. Louis, which saw its violent crime go down by more than 20 percent in the first six months of the year. Oakland, Calif. on the other hand experienced a violent crime increase of 10 percent, which was primarily fueled by its 30.37 percent growth in robberies.

For more information on changes in specific cities see our article here.

In addition to violent crime, property crime also decreased in the first six months of last year, going down 5.4 percent as well. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The leading contributor to this decrease was burglary, which went down 8.1 percent. Although arson decreased by 15.6 percent and is considered a property crime, the FBI does not include these statistics in property crime totals.

The 2013 report also marks the first time that the FBI’s new definition of rape has been used by law enforcement to report offense totals. The updated definition removed the word “forcible” from the term and expanded the meaning to include any kind of penetration occurring without consent. The national changes indicated by the report do not yet use statistics according to the new definition because they cannot be compared with historic data; however, the new numbers are available for the individual cities that have started using the updated definition.

Click here to read more Crime in America coverage.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Latest Data Shows Violent Crime Across America is Down appeared first on Law Street.

In 2011, a debate over the FBI’s definition of rape emerged. Each year, the FBI creates Uniform Crime Reports, a cooperative effort to gather crime statistics from various jurisdictions all across the United States. In 2011, the FBI was still using a definition that was written in the 1930s. It constituted rape as, “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will.” This definition came under heavy fire, slammed for being incredibly narrow. There were numerous problems with this definition, but one of the most heavily cited problems included that under this definition, men could not be victims of rape. Another was that under this definition, the victim must have tried to physically resist the assault, preventing victims who were drugged or terrified from being counted. It also could not include any other kind of sexual assault, such as forcing a victim to perform sexual activities. Incest and statutory rape were both excluded.

As a result of this archaic definition, thousands of rapes were not being included in the Uniform Crime Reports each year. After intensive lobbying from special interest groups, law enforcement, and Congress; the FBI did eventually change its definition, in March of 2012. The new definition reads: “the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” This definition will be put into place for the first time in the Uniform Crime Reports of 2013.

Despite the old definition used by the FBI, many states and cities had long since updated their methods of defining rape and sexual assault. In the years between state statutes updating their definitions, and the FBI taking the same steps, cities and states had to report two separate pieces of data: the ones that were included in a state statue’s usually broader definition, and the smaller number that fell into the FBI’s narrow definition. For example, in 2010, NYPD reported 1,369 rapes, but only 1,036 were entered into the FBI’s database. Minneapolis actually over-reported their rapes, stating that the cases they reported were accurate according to their modern definition, and that they did not have the resources to filter out cases for the FBI’s reports.

One of the few places that did not take efforts to break down the data this way was the city of Chicago. In 2010, Chicago had approximately 1,400 sexual assaults. Not a single one of these made their way into the FBI report, because the FBI did not accept the way that Chicago reported their rapes. For years, Chicago was not included on the FBI list of cities, or any of the underlying data because of this lack of reporting. The first year in which Chicago will actually be able to report their rape statistics accurately will be 2013, so expect changes to violent crime statistics to happen in the new Uniform Crime Reports to be released for 2013. If the measure of violent crime were based on murder, robbery, and aggravated assault (excluding forcible rape), Chicago, Ill. would rank 33 on the overall list of Most Dangerous Cities for calendar 2012.

Click here to read more Crime in America coverage.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Defining Rape: The FBI Takes Action appeared first on Law Street.