Violent Crime Rate Bumps Up For Second Year in a Row
Every year, the Bureau of Justice Statistics publishes the results of its National Crime Victimization Survey. The latest one finds that the violent crime rate in 2012 (which includes rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated and simple assault) rose from 22.6 victimizations per 1,000 persons in 2011 to 26.1 last year. In 2011, the violent crime rate rose from from 19.3 to 22.5 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older. That's up from the low point reached in 2010 when the BJS reported that the number of violent criminal victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 and older had declined from 17.1 to 14.9 victimizations per 1,000 persons between 2009 and 2010.
In 1993, the violent crime rate was 79.8 per 1,000 persons age 12 or older. So even with the increase last year, the violent crime rate is still nearly 70 percent lower than it was two decades ago.
