The 2011 statistics show that the estimated volumes of violent and property crimes declined 3.8 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, when compared with the 2010 estimates. The violent crime rate for the year was 386.3 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants (a 4.5 percent decrease from the 2010 rate), and the property crime rate was 2,908.7 offenses per 100,000 persons (a 1.3 percent decrease from the 2010 figure).These crime stats come on the heals of the release of the National Crime Victim's Survey data that was released a couple of weeks ago. Where UCR counts actual crimes reported to police, the NCVS surveys people to ask about victimization and would include crimes that people did not report to police. The NCVS estimated that violent crime numbers were up, where the FBI UCR data shows that violent crime was down.
Of course the release of the UCR data means that all the media outlets not covering the hurricane on the East Coast can now start ranking their community against other communities. In spite of the FBI warning that this media bloodsport is overly simplistic and not recommended, I'm sure they will do it anyway.
